[meteorite-list] University of Arizona Cameras Give Sight to NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.asteroidmission.org/?post_type=latest-news&p=619

University of Arizona Cameras Give Sight to NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission
August 24, 2015 

>From over two million kilometers away, a powerful camera on NASA's Origins, 
Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer 
(OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will "see" the tiny asteroid Bennu for the first 
time, helping to guide the spacecraft to its destination. Once there, 
its versatile focus mechanism will transform the camera from a telescope 
to a microscope, enabling it to examine tiny rocks while only hundreds 
of meters from the asteroid's surface.

UA's completed camera suite, OCAMS, sits on a test bench that mimics its 
arrangement on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The three cameras that compose 
the instrument are the eyes of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. They will map 
the asteroid Bennu, help choose a sample site, and ensure that the sample 
is correctly stowed on the spacecraft. Credit: University of Arizona/Symeon 
Platts

UA's completed camera suite, OCAMS, sits on a test bench that mimics its 
arrangement on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The three cameras that compose 
the instrument are the eyes of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. They will map 
the asteroid Bennu, help choose a sample site, and ensure that the sample 
is correctly stowed on the spacecraft. Credit: University of Arizona/Symeon 
Platts

This camera, called PolyCam, is part of an innovative suite of three cameras 
designed and built by the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary 
Laboratory (LPL). Together, these cameras will enable the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid 
Sample Return mission to map the asteroid Bennu, choose a sample site, 
and ensure that the sample is correctly stowed on the spacecraft. The 
University of Arizona delivered the OSIRIS-REx CAMera Suite (OCAMS) instrument 
to Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado, today for integration 
onto the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

"The OCAMS instrument's three cameras, PolyCam, MapCam and SamCam, will 
be our mission's eyes at Bennu," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator 
for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona. "OCAMS will provide the imagery 
we need to complete our mission while the spacecraft is at the asteroid."

The largest of the three cameras, PolyCam, is small telescope that will 
acquire the first images of Bennu from two million kilometers distance 
and provide high resolution imaging of the sample site. MapCam will search 
for satellites and outgassing plumes around Bennu, map the asteroid in 
color, and provide images to construct topographic maps. SamCam will document 
the sample acquisition event and the collected sample.

"The most important goal of these cameras is to maximize our ability to 
successfully return a sample," said OCAMS instrument scientist Bashar 
Rizk. "Our mission requires a lot of activities during one trip - navigation, 
mapping, reconnaissance, sample site selection, and sampling. While we 
are there, we need the ability to continuously see what is happening around 
the asteroid in order to make real-time decisions."

The OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to launch in September 2016 to study 
Bennu, a near-Earth and potentially hazardous asteroid. After rendezvousing 
with Bennu in 2018, the spacecraft will survey the asteroid, obtain a 
sample, and return it to Earth.

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, and will return 
the largest sample from space since the Apollo lunar missions. Scientists 
expect that Bennu may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and 
the source of water and organic molecules that may have seeded life on 
Earth. Bennu also has a relatively high probability of impacting the Earth 
late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx's investigation will inform future 
efforts to develop a mission to mitigate an impact, should one be required.

"This is another major step in preparing for our mission," said Mike Donnelly, 
OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, 
Maryland. "With the delivery of OCAMS to the spacecraft contractor, we 
will have our full complement of cameras and spectrometers,"

While SamCam and MapCam were made exclusively by LPL, PolyCam's optics 
and structure were made through a joint program between LPL and the University 
of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences. PolyCam's unique focus mechanism 
is also the basis of LPL's first patent application.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland provides overall 
mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance 
for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta is the mission's principal investigator 
at the University of Arizona, Tucson. 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.