News

OSIRIS-REx SCIENCE: MOST PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF YARKOVSKY EFFECT
May 30, 2012

OSIRIS-REx mission scientists have measured the orbit of asteroid 1999 RQ36 (the mission's target asteroid) with such accuracy they were able to directly measure the drift resulting from a subtle but important force called the Yarkovsky effect – the slight push created when the asteroid absorbs sunlight and re-emits that energy as heat.

To learn more read NASA's press release here.

OSIRIS-REx ON AUSTRALIA'S RADIO SCIENCE SHOW
May 21, 2012

The OSIRIS-REx mission Principal Investigator, Dante Lauretta, spoke to Australia's Radio National Science Show Program about the mission, what we hope to learn, student involvement, and much more!

Listen to the program below:

METEORITE HUNT YIELDS TREASURE FOR OSIRIS-REx MISSION
May 21, 2012

Thanks to the generosity of three professional meteorite hunters, the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will own three samples of a rare kind of meteorite leftover from the earliest beginnings of the solar system.

The OSIRIS-REx mission PI Dante Lauretta and Deputy PI Ed Beshore spoke to the UA about it. Click here to read more!

AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS WILL ‘TARGET ASTEROIDS!’
April 26, 2012

Amateur astronomers are about to make observations that will affect current and future space missions to asteroids.

Some will use custom-made, often automated, telescopes equipped with CCD cameras in their backyards. Others will use home computers to make remote observations with more powerful telescopes states or continents away. Many belong to leading national and international amateur astronomy organizations with members ranging from retirees to school kids.

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference: Networking, the OSIRIS-REx mission, and Asteroid Science
April 12, 2012

Every year members of the planetary science community meet in Houston, Texas to share their research, foster collaborations, and strengthen pre-existing ones. This tradition started in 1970 when scientists met to discuss work done on Moon rocks returned by the NASA Apollo missions. The annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) has grown each year – this year’s conference was attended by more than 1,700 scientists from all over the world.

System Definition Reviews: Key Checkpoints on the Way to a Successful Mission
April 2, 2012

This week the OSIRIS-REx mission team began the first of a series of meetings that will run for a month or so — the System Definition Reviews or SDRs. Each instrument will have its own day long SDR - OCAMS, OTIS, OVIRS, OLA, REXIS and even the Touch-and-go Sample Mechanism, TAGSAM. These instrument SDRs will lead up to the overall Mission Definition Review, or MDR, in May.

Designing the OSIRIS-REx Mission
March 19, 2012

The OSIRIS-REx team held a “DRM Walk-through” in Denver during the last week of February to discuss the details of just how the mission will operate – how all the flight maneuvers will enable the instruments to focus in on the asteroid to map its composition and topography, measure the orbital deviations, select a sample site, sample, and return the sample to Earth. Team members arrived from various cities and those not traveling to Denver participated via telecon. Overall about 60 people contributed to this productive gathering.

OSIRIS-REx PI DANTE LAURETTA GIVES SCIENCE DOWNTOWN LECTURE
February 10, 2012

Our PI Dante Lauretta gives a lecture at the Science Downtown exhibit about the OSIRIS-REx mission.

When and where: Science Downtown, 300 E. Congress St. Sunday 12th February at 2pm.

Click here for more information about the Science Downtown Sunday Lecture Series.