[meteorite-list] Second Instrument Delivered for OSIRIS-REx Mission

[Ron Baalke]

http://uanews.org/story/second-instrument-delivered-for-osiris-rex-mission

Second Instrument Delivered for OSIRIS-REx Mission
University of Arizona
July 8, 2015

[Image]
In a clean room facility near Denver, Lockheed Martin technicians continue 
assembling NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft that will collect samples of an 
asteroid. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

A spectrometer that will help the UA-led OSIRIS-REx mission team select 
a suitable sampling site on asteroid Bennu has arrived at Lockheed Martin's 
spacecraft assembly facility, ready to be integrated into the nascent 
spacecraft.

[Image]
The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer, or OVIRS, will measure 
visible and near infrared light from the asteroid Bennu, which can be 
used to identify water and organic materials. (Photo: NASA/GSFC/Bill Hrybyk)

An instrument that will explore the surface of a primitive asteroid in 
search of water and organic materials has arrived at Lockheed Martin for 
installation onto NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification 
and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx.

The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer, or OVIRS, instrument 
measures visible and near infrared light from the asteroid Bennu that 
can be used to identify water and organic materials. NASA's Goddard Space 
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, built the instrument. 

"The delivery of OVIRS to the spacecraft means the mission now has the 
capability to measure the minerals and chemicals at the sample site on 
Bennu," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at 
the University of Arizona. "I greatly appreciate the hard work and innovation 
the OVIRS team demonstrated during the creation of this instrument."

OVIRS, a point spectrometer, will split the light from Bennu into its 
component wavelengths, similar to a prism that splits sunlight into a 
rainbow, but over a much broader range of wavelengths. Different chemicals 
have unique spectral signatures by absorbing sunlight and can be identified 
in the reflected spectrum. The spectra provided by the instrument will 
help guide sample site selection.

"Through the team's efforts, OVIRS has become a remarkably capable instrument, 
which we expect to return exciting science from the asteroid Bennu," said 
Dennis Reuter, OVIRS instrument lead from Goddard.

After thorough testing with the spacecraft on the ground, the instrument 
will be powered on for check-out shortly after launch, with first science 
data collected during the Earth gravity assist in September 2017.

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid 
to Earth for study. The mission is scheduled for launch in September 2016. 
It will reach its asteroid target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth 
in 2023.

The spacecraft will travel to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid, and bring 
back to Earth a sample of at least 2.1 ounces for study. The mission will 
help scientists investigate the composition of the very early solar system 
and the source of organic materials and water that made their way to Earth, 
and improve understanding of asteroids that could impact our planet.

"The OVIRS team has met all of their technical requirements," said Mike 
Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center. "This 
is another step in completing the spacecraft and sending it on its way 
to rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu."

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