Tag Archives: OSIRIS-REx

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) hosted a briefing with reporters yesterday going over the NASA-led OSIRIS-REx mission which is retuning samples on September 24. Canada will receive a sample where it will be housed in a curation facility which will be the first of its kind in the country This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, …

Asteroid mining has received a lot of attention, both as a possible way of addressing resource shortages and as a way of reducing the environmental impact of mining on Earth. While it is assumed that asteroid mining is still a far-off dream, the recent Planetary and Terrestrial Mining Science Symposium may suggest otherwise. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven …

In this episode of the Space Economy podcast we discuss asteroids as a resource with Dr. Dante Lauretta. This is the fourth of ten episodes in our special series Doing Business in the Solar System hosted by Elizabeth Howell.

Canada was all over the solar system – and even peering beyond its borders – in 2020. Canadian technology helped a spacecraft touch down on a comet, and was named to hunt for exoplanets on a future NASA telescope. Canadian researchers were also busy with space science studies, and companies continued to win contracts amid a tough economic environment due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. …

It was scripted to happen this way, but when it did what it was supposed to do, ground controllers and scientists elation was clearly evident. What had just happened? A spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, had just “touched” down, albeit it for seconds, on asteroid Bennu, grabbed a bunch of “dust and pebbles,” and taken off again with its prize. It lasted mere seconds, yet took years to …

Just days ahead of a spacecraft landing on Bennu, a newly released model of the asteroid shows a complex history – including the fact that its surface regolith might have expanded and contracted at least once.

In mid-February the Canadian built OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft did not perform as expected. The mission team now have a better understanding of what happened.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency reported yesterday that preliminary data sent back from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft indicates that the Canadian built OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) did not perform as expected on its latest usage.

The NASA led OSIRIS-REx mission is exceeding scientists expectations and now they have to make the difficult decision of where to land the spacecraft from four candidate sites on asteroid Bennu to collect samples.

Before the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in orbit around asteroid Bennu can take a sample from the surface it needs to be mapped. That’s where Canada’s OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) comes in.