Related papers: OSIRIS-REx: Sample Return from Asteroid (101955) B…

We have obtained polarimetric measurements of asteroid (101955) Bennu, a presumably primitive near-Earth object (NEO) that is the target of NASA's sample return mission OSIRIS-REx. During our observing campaign, Bennu was visible from Earth…

The OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) is a point spectrometer covering the spectral range of 0.4 to 4.3 microns (25,000-2300 cm-1). Its primary purpose is to map the surface composition of the asteroid Bennu, the target…

Early detection and tracking of ejecta in the vicinity of small solar system bodies is crucial to guarantee spacecraft safety and support scientific observation. During the visit of active asteroid Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft relied on…

To date, three samples from near-Earth asteroids have been delivered to Earth by Japan's Hayabusa (2010) and Hayabusa2 (2020) missions, and the United States OSIRIS-REx mission (2023). Free from terrestrial contamination, these pristine…

A small number of anomalously bright boulders on the near-Earth, rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu were recently identified as eucritic material originating from asteroid (4) Vesta. Building on this discovery, we explored the global…

The Quantitative Reflectance Imaging System (QRIS) is a laboratory-based spectral imaging system constructed to image the sample of asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and…

The requirements-driven OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) acquires images essential to collecting a sample from the surface of Bennu. During proximity operations, these images document the presence of satellites and plumes, record spin state,…

Owing to the extremely low gravity of small near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), it has been assumed that impact-generated rock fragments escape into space and thus do not contribute to the accumulation of regolith. However, centimeter-sized stones…

The NASA mission OSIRIS-REx has been observing near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in close proximity since December 2018. In this work, we investigate spectral phase reddening -- that is, the variation of spectral slope with phase angle --…

Asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system tend to have irregular shapes, owing to their low gravity. This irregularity does not only apply to the topology, but also to the underlying geology, potentially containing regions of…

The surfaces of airless bodies such as asteroids are exposed to many phenomena that can alter their physical properties. Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission, has demonstrated how complex the surface of a small body can be. In 2019…

Near-Earth small-body mission targets 162173 Ryugu, 101955 Bennu, and 25143 Itokawa produce gravity fields around 4 orders of magnitude below that of Earth and their irregular shapes, combined with rotational effects produce varying surface…

The JAXA Hayabusa-2 mission was approved in 2010 and launched on December 3, 2014. The spacecraft will arrive at the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu in 2018 where it will perform a survey, land and obtain surface material, then depart in…

Optical tracking systems typically trade-off between astrometric precision and field-of-view. In this work, we showcase a networked approach to optical tracking using very wide field-of-view imagers that have relatively low astrometric…

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample-return mission is investigating primitive near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Thousands of images will be acquired by the MapCam instrument onboard the spacecraft, an imager with four color filters based on…

The dark asteroid (101955) Bennu studied by NASA\textquoteright s OSIRIS-REx mission has a boulder-rich and apparently dust-poor surface, providing a natural laboratory to investigate the role of single-scattering processes in rough…

Sample Return Capsules (SRCs) entering Earth's atmosphere at hypervelocity from interplanetary space are a valuable resource for studying meteor phenomena. The 24 September 2023 arrival of the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation,…

NASA's New Horizons (NH) Pluto-Kuiper belt (PKB) mission was launched on 19 January 2006 on a Jupiter Gravity Assist (JGA) trajectory toward the Pluto system for a 14 July 2015 closest approach; Jupiter closest approach occurred on 28…

Using the multi-band imager MapCam onboard the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, we identified 77 instances of proposed exogenic materials distributed globally…

The New Horizons mission was launched on 2006 January 19, and the spacecraft is heading for a flyby encounter with the Pluto system in the summer of 2015. The challenges associated with sending a spacecraft to Pluto in less than 10 years…