OSIRIS-REx's First Instrument Arrives for Integration Into the Spacecraft

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OSIRIS-REx's First Instrument Arrives for Integration Into the Spacecraft
University of Arizona
June 26, 2015

The first of five instruments that will map and analyze asteroid Bennu
as part of the UA-led OSIRIS-REx mission has arrive at the Lockheed Martin
Space Systems facility and awaits integration into the spacecraft structure.

A journey that will stretch millions of miles and take years to complete
begins with a short trip to a loading dock.

The first of five instruments for a spacecraft that will collect a sample
from an asteroid and bring it back to Earth has arrived at the Lockheed
Martin Space Systems facility in Littleton, Colorado, for its installation
onto NASA's Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security-Regolith
Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft.

Led by the University of Arizona, OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission
to fly to, study and retrieve a pristine sample from an asteroid and return
it to Earth for study. Scheduled to launch in September 2016, the spacecraft
will reach its asteroid target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in
2023. The mission will allow scientists to investigate the composition
of material from the very earliest epochs of solar system history, providing
information about the source of organic materials and water on Earth.

The OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer, or OTES, will conduct surveys
to map mineral and chemical abundances and to take the asteroid Bennu’s
temperature. OTES is the first such instrument built entirely on the Arizona
State University campus.

"It is a significant milestone to have OSIRIS-REx's first instrument completed
and delivered for integration onto the spacecraft," said Dante Lauretta,
principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the UA's Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory. "The OTES team has done an excellent job on the instrument
and I deeply appreciate their scientific contribution to the mission.
OTES plays an essential role in characterizing the asteroid in support
of sample-site selection."

OTES is one of five instruments from national and international partners.
These instruments will be key to mapping and analyzing Bennu's surface
and will be critical in identifying a site from which a sample can be
safely retrieved and ultimately returned to Earth.

"OTES, the size of a microwave oven, has spent the last several years
being designed, built, tested and calibrated," says Philip Christensen,
OTES instrument scientist at ASU. "Now OTES is shipping out for the solar
system."

The instrument will be powered on shortly after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft
begins its two-year trip to the asteroid Bennu. On arrival at Bennu, OTES
will provide spectral data for global maps used to assess potential sample
sites. It will take thermal infrared spectral data every two seconds and
will be able to detect temperatures with an accuracy of 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
It also will detect the presence of minerals on the asteroid's surface.

The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) consists of three cameras that will
image the asteroid Bennu during approach and proximity operations. Scientists
and engineers at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab designed and built OCAMS
to image Bennu over nine orders of magnitude in distance, from one million
kilometers (more than 620,000 miles) down to two meters (6.5 feet). PolyCam,
the largest camera of the OCAMS suite, is both a telescope - acquiring
the asteroid from far away while it is still a point of light - and a
microscope capable of scrutinizing the pebbles on Bennu's surface. MapCam
will map the entire surface of Bennu from a distance of three miles, and
the Sampling Camera, or SamCam, is designed to document the sample acquisition.
The OCAMS instrument suite is scheduled to be installed on the spacecraft
in September.

The OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter, or OLA, will scan Bennu to map the entire
asteroid surface, producing local and global topographic maps. OLA is
a contributed instrument from the Canadian Space Agency.

The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer, or OVIRS, measures visible
and infrared light from Bennu, which can be used to identify water and
organic materials. The instrument is provided by NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center.

A student experiment called the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer, or
REXIS, will map elemental abundances on the asteroid. REXIS is a collaboration
between the students and faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and Harvard College Observatory.

"The next few months will be very busy as we begin integrating the instruments
and prepare for the system-level environmental testing program to begin,"
said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provides overall mission management,
systems engineering and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. The
UA's Lauretta is the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin
Space Systems in Denver is building the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the
third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages New Frontiers for the agency's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Contacts

Erin Morton
OSIRIS-REx Communications
520-269-2493
mor...@orex.lpl.arizona.edu

Daniel Stolte
UA University Relations, Communications
520-626-4402
sto...@email.arizona.edu