Osiris-REX: NASA's Asteroid Harvester 

Great presentation Simon, thank you. I was fortunate enough to be part of the citizen science team that mapped Bennu to find a suitable sample acquisition site. I counted and marked every pebble, rock, boulder, and crater on over 700 images. It was slow, tedious work that took nearly 6 months, but I'm very glad that I participated. I'm really looking forward to the return of the sample and all the science we get from it.

The discovery that asteroids (at least some, if not most) are largely clumps of gravel makes OSIRIS one of the most exciting missions of my lifetime.

You forgot to mention that the sample was so large that it had jammed the lid open on the return container. They finally managed to get it closed by "jiggleing" the container to clear the seals.

It never stops amazing me how scientists come up with these elegant but precise names.

1:30 - Chapter 1 - Look to the skies 4:50 - Chapter 2 - Fantastic voyager 8:55 - Chapter 3 - Rock in space 11:45 - Chapter 4 - A magical mystery tour 15:05 - Chapter 5 - The long way home - Chapter 6 -

"Bennu" is the name for the ancient Egyptian version of the Phoenix myth. Makes me think of the firestorm it could create on Earth, and the rebirth of life following after.

You should check out Hayabusa2, Japan's mission to Ryugu and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission.

Really fascinating and enjoyable video Simon. Well done to you and your team

My parents live on the eastern edge of the Utah test range and I’m still trying to find out if I’d be able to see this when it comes back to earth!

Thanks for pluggin the little guy. So much information to be had. Great mission!

"Man is the measure of all things." Plato "Shak is the measure of all things." Simon

Might have to take a trip to Utah in September, if not, I'll at least look up and wave as OSIRIS continues it's long journey

I wonder what percentage of NASA's budget is designated for coming up with the acronyms for their probes and programs?

Does the nature of the asteroid being a pile of rocks beraly held together make it less dangerous upon entry on earth's atmosphere? Would all these rocks just explode if they get into our atmosphere?

One of the most interesting videos I've ever seen.

Doesn't the Hayabusa deserve it's own Megaprojects video?

Well done on this I really enjoyed the content!

Excellent presentation. Thank you for your great work.

Glad you covered this! I was lucky enough to have my name placed on 2xmicrochips which reside on the return craft, and the main craft as well! Couldn't be more excited to have my name hurtling through space, now to Apophis and beyond!

I vote that we keep the Shaq system lol

The Shaq system... Brilliant!

I wonder if Simon can pick up on the "size of Connecticut" analogies.

I like the unit of measurement Shaq. It's about as meaningful as imperial units like feet :)

Hello and Good Morning Simon

OSIRIS-REX has been worth the cost already. i'll have a tight feeling in the pit of my stomach until that parachute opens. After the length of this journey, i bet the engineers do to! Breathe deeply, it's going to be fine. Repeat !:-)

Is there a NASA think tank somewhere, the sole purpose of which is to make up catchy names for these things?

Awesome.

Excellent sir! I never knew about this

The fact that I found the idea of Americans abandoning the Imperial system in 200 years and weighing things in Shaq's, and the fact that I can see this happening in a weird timeline, funny as hell, proves spending 2 years in my house with nothing but unregulated online access maybe wasn't as good to my sense of humor then I thought. . .

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Osiris-Res mission was the cause of the slight change in orbit that causes a collision with Earth.

Great presentation Simon!

2:08 “asteroids were able to lug back” lol 😂

Serious question, I think this will really help me understand things better...Does anyone know what the conversion is between the unit of mass known as the Shaq and the unit of mass known as a Blue Whale Unit (or BWU for short, i.e. the mass of an average blue whale)? I'm kinda stumped by the use of Shaq rather than BWUs, so any help would be much appreciated! Edit: for clarification, I'm not referring to the similarly named Blue Whale Unit used in whaling regulations. That unit is utterly unintelligible to me. I'm referring specifically to the Blue Whale Unit described as the average mass of a blue whale, I believe it converts to about 220,000 pounds (assuming 1g gravity, of course).

I wonder if you could use the clockwork radio principle to power a probe that won’t be needed to be activated for decades, or possibly even longer. Like a probe sent to Alpha Centauri perhaps, with Solar Radiometers on the probe to both activate the probe as it nears the Solar system its aimed towards, and recharge the clockwork mechanism like a giant self rewinding watch that never stops running. The electronics would have to be powered like a clockwork radio, negating the need for batteries or Nuclear power, which will degrade over extremely long periods. This is the issue with the voyager probes as they age, despite the fact that the electronics and computers within the probe are functioning perfectly after nearly half a century of constant use. The probe would have to be large and capable of making independent decisions, which may require a large amount of older hardier computer chips. You could even go a step further, and have small landers on the larger probe that could be fired and directed towards other planets. They could be hardy probes, with a self contained non rechargeable clockwork power source of their own. Preferably a hardy probe to gather planetary data quickly, similar to the Venetian and Titan probes of the past. The only issue would be having a secondary rechargeable clockwork mechanism to power the transmitter, which would have to be very powerful for the extremely long distances to earth. Storage of information until broadcast would be vital. If Spacex can reduce the cost of launches further, perhaps we could have a mother ship probe that could launch smaller satellites like a Clockwork Cassinis, to examine planetary systems and their moons, as well as launch the aforementioned smaller probes This is a bit long winded and hypothetical but its worth thinking about…

I'm glad global space agencies have at last started working on ways to deflect mass extinction events striking our planet. I'm surprised it took until 2014 to start looking into it.

14:00 That's good then. Even if it hit Earth it would mostly break up and be vaporized in the atmosphere. And Long before that we could break it apart into its relatively small harmless components.

As I watch this right now, the sample has made it back safely to earth!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic video! Cheers, Simon.

Dude! this gives me an idea for a heist movie! Picture this. A group of enthusiastic profiteers plots to snag the sample container before NASA gets it and hold it ransom. There's a guy on the inside who causes a computer error at just the right time to send the package hundreds of miles off course. Then it becomes a race across the desert between out fun loving criminals and NASA to reach the probe first. Actually, this would fit right into the Fast and the Furious franchise. Oh and you need a reason you can't use helicopters soooo... Sand storm maybe? Whatever, make a good popcorn movie.

Great video Simon

Flew over from Ireland for the launch. Memorable experience.

Very interesting!

Have to make sure a small town doesn't find and open it.... It has "Andromeda Strain" Vibes... Excellent video

An excellent episode!

Sometimes with all the craziness and superstition you forget just how far we have come and what we are capable of when we cooperate in a common effort. Amazing.

Can you imagine if the gravitational influence of a probe impact/orbit/landing accidentally encouraged Bennu into a collision course? Sounds like a good movie.

Awesome

Oh those acronyms!

1:25 look to the skies 4:48 fantastic voyager 8:53 rock in space 11:42 a magical mystery tour 15:00 the long way home

I desperately want asteroid mining to get going so that we can get golden bullets normalized. For context, lead is used in bullets because it's soft which allows it to be engaged by rifling without damaging the barrel while at the same time being heavy which allows it to retain and deliver the maximum amount of kinetic energy to the target. ...you know what else is extremely heavy but also soft? 24 carat gold...

Hey Simon

Fascinating video! 😊

Lets appreciate how the infrared spectrometer looks like it was bungled together in an afternoon in some fabricators home garage

“Osiris”-Rex. Naming adoptions like this is is inevitably going to lead to some creative literature from Zechariah Sitchins the LXXVIII… in about 5000 years. Though it is a good name, and the meaning/homage behind it is touching.

the most detailed mapping of anything in space. humanity witnesses bennu in jaw dropping nSD resolution (nano shaq deffenition with dolby 5.1 surround sound).

I did not know about this mission.

I'm starting to think these scientists go through a course in acronyms.

The problem?? You mean "the probe", no doubt. Apart from that, great video!

who else watch this post 25th September 2023, right after the sample of Bennu safely arrived at UTAH?

I signed up to have my name on that ship! Yaaay!

Astroid destroying technology.... I'm getting Ace Combat vibes.

How aboot a video here or SideProjects on the various engines probes and such use on interplanetary flights. Or, a Science of Science Fiction on ion drives and various other sublight propultion used in SciFi/SciFan.

Bro... that beard oil is doing its job. Your chin helmet looks epic AF, Simon.

Hopefully we’ll have a presence in space (or perhaps even the Moon), to make it easier to deal with Way Too Near Earth Objects by the time Bennu swings by.

If it only comes close in 2170 or later, it is IMO quite likely that it will be snagged and dragged off to a smelter or refinery well before it becomes a hazard to planets and astrogation.

God, I forgot about Apophis. I remember in the early and mid 2000's, they treated that thing like Satan. Granted, it was rightfully so. It's currently the only object to have ever been given a rating of level 4 on the Torino scale.

I love your dry humor.

I mean depending on how far you want to stretch the meaning of the word "life" those little organic chemicals that may have been deposited could be considered ancient aliens lmfao

You should do a video on MPD thruster engines, over double the exhaust velocity of an ion drive but capable of proper thrust like unlike other electric propulsion. The ISP for them must just be crazy like Vasimir levels. Or one on the nuclear salt water rocket, capable of interstellar level ISP with thrust far beyond any chemical engine. I mean a constant nuclear explosion inside a rocket engine? YES! lets do that!

I wonder if they ever thought of designing the probe and mission so the sample cannister could be replaced and the probe refuelled by any of the two (?) space stations we humans have in orbit.

I have seen that movie Life. Do we really want that sample landing on earth?

"Osiris, what has happened to your nose?" "I've just returned from Rome."

Fortunately Bennu is a loose conglomerate and not a solid rock. So as it nears earth gravity it will break apart and rain down much smaller objects that won't do any real damage. No ELE from Bennu.

Turns out the force of the probe contacting the asteroid ends up putting it on course for certain collision with Earth. “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”

Scott Manley made a video called What Would Happen If Asteroid Bennu Hit Earth. Even "just rubble" would be a problem...

Here's a thought: Why doesn't someone develop a "kinetic bullet" spacecraft to hit Bennu with? The idea would be not do destroy the asteroid but to see just how much of its surface is "gravel garbage". A big pile of gravel might be dangerous if it hit the Earth in one mass, but if it hit the Earth as a cloud, its likely the vast majority of its mass would burn up in the atmosphere. The question is, how much of Bennu is "gravel garbage". If the gravel is just a few meters thick, then Bennu is a major threat. If it turns out the asteroid is nothing but a gravel pile, then destroying it would be a simple as shooting it with a few dozen "kinetic bullets". I'm thinking that might pose some different problems since hitting it with a few initial "bullets" might alter its orbital characteristics and inadvertently "steer" it into an orbit that sends it closer to Earth sooner. But, if it has a solid core, a kinetic bullet would do nothing but open up a gravel crater.

What time is a good goal to set for myself when running 745.76 shaqs?

I wonder, is there going be a review for the mq9 reaper as well as the mq4 global hawk?

1 in 2700 sounds pretty bad to me!!

I like the way he pronounces NASA

The accrual of the expenses over that many years, makes this a very cheap project, and it's a science grinding machine, that was expensive to do one thing but almost a decade later it will casually do more science essentially for free

looks a bit like a cicada.

I can't wait for a space elevator and orbital platforms and such, to make missions like these cheaper and easier to just keep going and going since they can be continually resupplied easily. And as I understand, the engineering and design of space elevators is getting to the point where we think we can build one in under 10 years

👏Simon! Hey- I remember ( when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth) a few decades ago- Magazines like POPULAR SCIENCE & POPULAR SCIENCE, etc.. - Showcased BACK THEN of; UN-Manned, Computer & Automated MACHINES to go INTO Space: Mine/ Fabricate/ Build Simple Platforms for Space people to Vacation on! That, and 1969 “ Self Driving Cars “!! 👴🏼NoBody.

In the end, it all boils down to poking it with a stick.

Ok!

Dumb question, if Bennu is SO loosely held together, even if it does impact Earth, wouldn't it just be shredded by Earth's gravity and then the fragments merely burn up in the atmosphere?

If Bennu is just a pile of gravel, how would that affect its collision with Earth? Instead of one big bang would we get a whole maird load of small bangs that would add up to one big bang?

I saw this launched; it'll be a little sad once it returns.

I absolutely agree. I think the DOJ has gone too easy on most of these people. Some of these people that got a month to months in jail should have been sentenced to years in jail.

Wait… if Benu is made of loosely held together rocks, would it not just break up the minute it hits our atmosphere and burn up on entry? It would only be dangerous to us in a real sense if it were one massive lump of rock, would it not?

if the sample comes back I can already the the Nemo seagulls (the scientists) looking over it on the desert floor with very troubling looks of longing and the sample being very worried about its future

Why does this sound like the beginning of Andromeda Strain????

as an American i apperiate the Shaq measuremnt thanks for the clarification

Apophis, approx 138 shaqs in size

Ya know... we've got this huge space station still in orbit that it would be a lot easier to transfer samples to rather than risking the sample on reentry.

"Lonely planetary scientists..." Ouch! 🪐👨‍🔬

I think you missed an opportunity to compare Bennus gravity to Shaqs... :D

Using Shaq as a measurement system is hilarious. Forget about freedom units. Lol.

To put Apophis into context... it is 133.35 Shaq's across.