OSIRIS-REx/OSIRIS-APEX Mission Updates

[Targeteer]

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/nasas-osiris-apex-unscathed-after-searing-pass-of-sun/

NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX Unscathed After Searing Pass of Sun
The headshot image of Lonnie Shekhtman

Lonnie Shekhtman
May 28, 2024
Article

Mission engineers were confident NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification – Apophis Explorer) spacecraft could weather its closest ever pass of the Sun on Jan. 2, 2024. Their models had predicted that, despite traveling 25 million miles closer to the heat of the Sun than it was originally designed to, OSIRIS-APEX and its components would remain safe.

The mission team confirmed that the spacecraft indeed had come out of the experience unscathed after downloading stored telemetry data in mid-March. The team also tested OSIRIS-APEX’s instruments in early April, once the spacecraft was far enough from the Sun to return to normal operations. Between December 2023 and March, OSIRIS-APEX was inactive, with only limited telemetry data available to the team on Earth.
Two identical scenes are seen in a pair of side-by-side images. Against the pitch-black background of space, a boxy metallic satellite dominates the foreground. Glints of light are bouncing off the shiniest parts of the structure.
Both these images from a camera called StowCam aboard OSIRIS-APEX show the same view taken six months apart, before (left) and after (right) the Jan. 2, 2024, perihelion. Notably, there is no observable difference on spacecraft surfaces, a good indication that the higher temperatures faced during perihelion didn’t alter the spacecraft. Another insight gleaned from the identical view in the two images is that the camera’s performance was also not affected by perihelion. StowCam, a color imager, is one of three cameras comprising TAGCAMS (the Touch-and-Go Camera System), which is part of OSIRIS-APEX’s guidance, navigation, and control system. TAGCAMS was designed, built and tested by Malin Space Science Systems; Lockheed Martin integrated TAGCAMS to the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft and operates TAGCAMS.
NASA/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

The spacecraft’s clean bill of health was due to creative engineering. Engineers placed OSIRIS-APEX in a fixed orientation with respect to the Sun and repositioned one of its two solar arrays to shade the spacecraft’s most sensitive components during the pass.

The spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit around the Sun that brings it to a point closest to the Sun, called a perihelion, about every nine months. To get on a path that will allow it to meet up with its new target Apophis in 2029, the spacecraft’s trajectory includes several perihelions that are closer to the Sun than the spacecraft’s components were originally designed to withstand.

“It’s phenomenal how well our spacecraft configuration protected OSIRIS-APEX, so I’m really encouraged by this first close perihelion pass,” said Ron Mink, mission systems engineer for OSIRIS-APEX, based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Besides confirming that the January perihelion worked out according to predictions, engineers found surprises while testing spacecraft components. A couple of instruments came out better than expected after exposure to higher temperatures.

A camera that helped map asteroid
Bennu

and will do the same at Apophis, saw a 70% reduction in “hot pixels” since April 13, 2023, the last time it was tested. Hot pixels, which are common in well-used cameras in space, show up as white spots in images when detectors accumulate exposure to high-energy radiation, mostly from our Sun.

“We think the heat from the Sun reset the pixels through annealing,” said Amy Simon, OSIRIS-APEX project scientist, based at NASA Goddard. Annealing is a heat process that can restore function of instruments and is often done intentionally through built-in heaters on some spacecraft.
Captured on Oct. 20, 2020, as NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu, this series of 82 images shows the SamCam imager’s field of view as the spacecraft approached and touched Bennu’s surface. OSIRIS-REx's sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Another welcome surprise, said Simon, came from the spacecraft’s visible and near-infrared spectrometer

. Before perihelion, the spectrometer, which mapped the surface composition of Bennu, and will do the same at Apophis, seemed to have a rock from Bennu stuck inside its calibration port. Scientist suspected that some sunlight was blocked from filtering through the instrument after the spacecraft, then called OSIRIS-REx, grabbed a sample from asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020. By picking up the sample and then firing its engines to back away from Bennu, the spacecraft stirred up dust and pebbles that clung to it.

“But, with enough spacecraft maneuvers and engine burns after sample collection,” Simon said, the rock in the calibration port appears to have been dislodged. Scientists will check the spectrometer again when OSIRIS-APEX swings by Earth on Sept. 25, 2025, for a gravitational boost.

OSIRIS-APEX is now operating normally as it continues its journey toward asteroid Apophis for a 2029 rendezvous. Its better-than-expected performance during the first close perihelion is welcome news. But engineers caution that it doesn’t mean it’s time to relax. OSIRIS-APEX needs to execute five more exceptionally close passes of the Sun — along with three Earth gravity assists — to get to its destination. It’s unclear how the cumulative effect of six perihelions at a closer distance than designed will impact the spacecraft and its components.

The second OSIRIS-APEX perihelion is scheduled for Sept. 1, 2024. The spacecraft will be 46.5 million miles away from the Sun, which is roughly half the distance between Earth and the Sun, and well inside the orbit of Venus.

[Targeteer]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/surprising-phosphate-finding-in-nasas-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample/

 Surprising Phosphate Finding in NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample
Mineral fragment from OSIRIS-REx's asteroid Bennu sample, seen against a black background. The pieces are predominantly gray, with notable light blue hues flecked throughout. The biggest fragment, triangular, is about a millimeter on a side.
A microscope image of a dark Bennu particle, about a millimeter long, with a crust of bright phosphate. To the right is a smaller fragment that broke off.

Jun 26, 2024
 
Article

    A Phosphate Surprise
    From a Young Solar System
    Hints at Life’s Building Blocks
    What’s Next

    Early analysis of the asteroid Bennu sample returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed dust rich in carbon, nitrogen, and organic compounds, all of which are essential components for life as we know it. Dominated by clay minerals, particularly serpentine, the sample mirrors the type of rock found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth.
    The magnesium-sodium phosphate found in the sample hints that the asteroid could have splintered off from an ancient, small, primitive ocean world. The phosphate was a surprise to the team because the mineral had not been detected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft while at Bennu.
    While a similar phosphate was found in the asteroid Ryugu sample delivered by JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission in 2020, the magnesium-sodium phosphate detected in the Bennu sample stands out for its purity (that is, the lack of other materials included in the mineral) and the size of its grains, unprecedented in any meteorite sample.

Scientists have eagerly awaited the opportunity to dig into the 4.3-ounce (121.6-gram) pristine asteroid Bennu sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission since it was delivered to Earth last fall. They hoped the material would hold secrets of the solar system’s past and the prebiotic chemistry that might have led to the origin of life on Earth. An early analysis of the Bennu sample, published June 26 in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, demonstrates this excitement was warranted.

The OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Team found that Bennu contains the original ingredients that formed our solar system. The asteroid’s dust is rich in carbon and nitrogen, as well as organic compounds, all of which are essential components for life as we know it. The sample also contains magnesium-sodium phosphate, which was a surprise to the research team, because it wasn’t seen in the remote sensing data collected by the spacecraft at Bennu. Its presence in the sample hints that the asteroid could have splintered off from a long-gone, tiny, primitive ocean world.
A Phosphate Surprise

Analysis of the Bennu sample unveiled intriguing insights into the asteroid’s composition. Dominated by clay minerals, particularly serpentine, the sample mirrors the type of rock found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth, where material from the mantle, the layer beneath Earth’s crust, encounters water.

This interaction doesn’t just result in clay formation; it also gives rise to a variety of minerals like carbonates, iron oxides, and iron sulfides. But the most unexpected discovery is the presence of water-soluble phosphates. These compounds are components of biochemistry for all known life on Earth today.
A tiny fraction of the asteroid Bennu sample returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, shown in microscope images. The top-left pane shows a dark Bennu particle, about a millimeter long, with an outer crust of bright phosphate. The other three panels show progressively zoomed-in views of a fragment of the particle that split off along a bright vein containing phosphate, captured by a scanning electron microscope.

While a similar phosphate was found in the asteroid Ryugu sample delivered by JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission in 2020, the magnesium-sodium phosphate detected in the Bennu sample stands out for its purity — that is, the lack of other materials in the mineral — and the size of its grains, unprecedented in any meteorite sample.

The finding of magnesium-sodium phosphates in the Bennu sample raises questions about the geochemical processes that concentrated these elements and provides valuable clues about Bennu’s historic conditions.

“The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggest a watery past for the asteroid,” said Dante Lauretta, co-lead author of the paper and principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Bennu potentially could have once been part of a wetter world. Although, this hypothesis requires further investigation.”

“OSIRIS-REx gave us exactly what we hoped: a large pristine asteroid sample rich in nitrogen and carbon from a formerly wet world,” said Jason Dworkin, a co-author on the paper and the OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Despite its possible history of interaction with water, Bennu remains a chemically primitive asteroid, with elemental proportions closely resembling those of the Sun.

“The sample we returned is the largest reservoir of unaltered asteroid material on Earth right now,” said Lauretta.

This composition offers a glimpse into the early days of our solar system, over 4.5 billion years ago. These rocks have retained their original state, having neither melted nor resolidified since their inception, affirming their ancient origins.
Hints at Life’s Building Blocks

The team has confirmed the asteroid is rich in carbon and nitrogen. These elements are crucial in understanding the environments where Bennu’s materials originated and the chemical processes that transformed simple elements into complex molecules, potentially laying the groundwork for life on Earth.

“These findings underscore the importance of collecting and studying material from asteroids like Bennu — especially low-density material that would typically burn up upon entering Earth’s atmosphere,” said Lauretta. “This material holds the key to unraveling the intricate processes of solar system formation and the prebiotic chemistry that could have contributed to life emerging on Earth.”
What’s Next

Dozens more labs in the United States and around the world will receive portions of the Bennu sample from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in the coming months, and many more scientific papers describing analyses of the Bennu sample are expected in the next few years from the OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Team.

“The Bennu samples are tantalizingly beautiful extraterrestrial rocks,” said Harold Connolly, co-lead author on the paper and OSIRIS-REx mission sample scientist at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. “Each week, analysis by the OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Team provides new and sometimes surprising findings that are helping place important constraints on the origin and evolution of Earth-like planets.”

Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft traveled to near-Earth asteroid Bennu and collected a sample of rocks and dust from the surface. OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, delivered the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provided overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provided flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace were responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx takes place at NASA Johnson. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Find more information about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission at:

https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

[starbase]

According to the trajectory animation and the sources below, the upcoming mission milestones for OSIRIS-ApEx are as follows:

-) Flyby at Earth in Sep. 2025
-) Flyby at Earth in Mar. 2027
-) Flyby at Apophis on Apr. 23 2029
-) Orbit insertion at Apophis in June 2029



https://www.space.com/asteroid-apophis-2029-ramses-esa-mission

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx

[Targeteer]

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/nasa-shares-asteroid-bennu-sample-in-exchange-with-jaxa/

NASA Shares Asteroid Bennu Sample in Exchange with JAXA
Wynn Scott
Public Affairs Specialist
Aug 23, 2024
 
As part of an asteroid sample exchange, NASA has transferred to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) a portion of the asteroid Bennu sample collected by the agency’s OSIRIS-REx mission. The sample was officially handed over by NASA officials during a ceremony on Aug. 22 at JAXA’s Sagamihara, Japan, campus.

This asteroid sample transfer follows the November 2021 exchange where JAXA transferred to NASA a portion of the sample retrieved from asteroid Ryugu by its Hayabusa2 spacecraft. This agreement allows NASA and JAXA to share achievements and promote scientific and technological cooperation on asteroid sample return missions. The scientific goals of the two missions are to understand the origins and histories of primitive, organic-rich asteroids and what role they may have played in the formation of the planets.

“We value our continued collaboration with JAXA on asteroid sample return missions to both increase our science return and reduce risk on these and other missions,” said Kathleen Vander Kaaden, chief scientist for astromaterials curation in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “JAXA has extensive curation capabilities, and we look forward to what we will learn from the shared analysis of the OSIRIS-REx samples.”

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft delivered 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from Bennu, more than double the mission’s mass requirement, as well as 24 steel Velcro® pads containing dust from the contact with Bennu. As part of the agreement, the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston transferred to JAXA 0.023 ounces (0.66 grams) of the Bennu sample, equaling 0.55% of the total sample mass, and one of the 24 contact pads.

Hayabusa2 collected 0.19 ounces (5.4 grams) of Ryugu between two samples and, in 2021, JAXA provided NASA with 23 millimeter-sized grains plus aggregate sample material from Ryugu, enabling both countries to get the most out of the samples and share the responsibility of sample curation.
Scientists inspect the Bennu sample during its arrival to JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.
JAXA

JAXA’s portion of the Bennu samples will be housed in the newly expanded clean rooms in the extraterrestrial sample curation center on the JAXA Sagamihara campus. The JAXA team received the samples enclosed in non-reactive nitrogen gas and will open them in similarly nitrogen-filled clean chambers, accessed with air-tight gloves. JAXA will now work to create an initial description of the sample, including weight measurements, imaging with both visible light and infrared light microscopes, and infrared spectroscopy. The sample will then be distributed through a competitively selected process for detailed analysis at other research institutes to study the differences and similarities between asteroids Bennu and Ryugu.

“Thank you for safely bringing the precious asteroid samples from Bennu to Earth and then to Japan,” said Tomohiro Usui, Astromaterials Science Research Group Manager, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA. “As fellow curators, we understand the tension and responsibility that accompany these tasks. Now, it is our turn at JAXA. We will go ahead with our plans to derive significant scientific outcomes from these valuable samples.”

Asteroids are debris left over from the dawn of the solar system. The Sun and its planets formed from a cloud of dust and gas about 4.6 billion years ago, and asteroids are thought to date back to the first few million years of our solar system’s history. Sample return missions like OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 help provide new data on how the solar system’s evolution unfolded.

Initial analysis of the Bennu samples has revealed dust rich in carbon and nitrogen. Members of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team have also found evidence of organic molecules and minerals bearing phosphorous and water, which together could indicate the building blocks essential for life.

Both the Bennu sample and the asteroid Ryugu sample delivered by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission appear to have come from an ancient parent object formed beyond the current orbit of Saturn that was broken up and transported into the inner solar system. The differences between these asteroids are emerging as the detailed chemistry is analyzed.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provided overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provided flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace were responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx takes place at NASA Johnson. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Find more information about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission at:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/osiris-rex

[Targeteer]

https://twitter.com/nascom1/status/1830099860265320785

[eeergo]

Got to see some asterioid stuff with my own eyes    Can say it looked very much like charcoal, even structure-wise. Note the white speck was actually dust on the capsule's glass, it's not a shiny bit of the sample (was tempted to wipe it away, but I'd probably have smeared the glass, and didn't want to get shouted at by the curator sitting right next to the exhibit). Also, the resolution is as poor as my old Samsung's camera, but to its defense it must be said that the actual size of the pebble was pretty small (I'd eyeball it at roughly 5 mm at its widest).

[Blackstar]

https://www.salon.com/2024/11/24/bacteria-found-on-asteroid-was-actually-earthly-contamination-scientists-report/

Bacteria found on asteroid was actually Earthly contamination, scientists report
A new study of samples from Ryugu found that microorganisms can avoid even stringent contamination controls
By Matthew Rozsa
Staff Writer
Published November 24, 2024 5:39AM (EST)

When scientists discovered water and a chemical compound common in RNA on a rock from the asteroid Ryugu, astronomy fans and laypeople alike held their collective breath for the chance of extraterrestrial life. As more evidence of microorganisms emerged, experts began to wonder if humans would soon learn life exists somewhere in the universe besides Earth.

A recent study in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science threw cold water on the idea — the microbes on Ryugu almost certainly came from Earth rather than outer space. They learned this because a sample from Ryugu, retrieved by the Hayabusa 2 mission 186 million miles from Earth, sent to Matthew Genge at Imperial College London was thoroughly tested for evidence of microbial life. None were found, indicating that the organic chemicals initially discovered were Earthly contaminants rather than indigenous to Ryugu.

“The presence of terrestrial microorganism within a sample of Ryugu underlines that microorganisms are the world's greatest colonizers and adept at circumventing contamination controls,” the authors conclude. “The presence of microorganisms within space-returned samples, even those subject to stringent contamination controls is, therefore, not necessarily evidence of an extraterrestrial origin.”

This is not the first time that scientists received false hope about proof of extraterrestrial microorganic life. In 2020 researchers publishing in the journal Nature Astronomy revealed that the atmosphere of Venus appeared to contain trace amounts of phosphine, a gas associated with anaerobic bacteria on Earth. Yet two subsequent scientific investigations failed to replicate the earlier study’s results, suggesting that there was no phosphine as previously thought.

On that occasion, the scientific error was that analysts misread the results from spectrometric readings of the Venusian atmosphere. This time the issue was much simpler — as the authors themselves wrote, “the discovery emphasizes that terrestrial biota can rapidly colonize extraterrestrial specimens even given contamination control precautions.”

[Don2]

Discussion about Ryugu related results moved to Hayabusa2 thread
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45811.1000

[ugordan]

Wrong thread for asteroid Ryugu.

[StraumliBlight]

NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX Survives 2nd Perihelion Pass [Jan 23]

NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Apophis Explorer) spacecraft kept its cool again this past fall after passing within 46.5 million miles of the Sun, between the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and surpassing its designed heat tolerances.

On Jan. 23 the mission team completed its review of all the data recorded by the spacecraft and its instruments during the solar pass. “There were no surprises, and the spacecraft is operating well,” said Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-APEX deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

As planned, on Sept. 2, 2024, OSIRIS-APEX passed through perihelion — the phase of its orbit closest to the Sun. The trajectory to Apophis takes the spacecraft much closer to the Sun than it was originally designed for. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 13, the spacecraft was configured in a special orientation that uses one of the solar arrays to shade the most heat-sensitive components, keeping them within safe operating temperatures.

While in perihelion configuration, communication with the spacecraft is only possible through one of the spacecraft’s low-gain antennas, thus only very limited data is available to monitor its systems. During this most recent perihelion, there was also a period of several days when no communications were possible while the spacecraft was on the other side of the Sun from Earth.

On Oct. 13 the spacecraft exited the perihelion configuration and methodically returned to full operating status, allowing flight engineers to downlink and analyze spacecraft telemetry and assess the health of the system. In November 2024, the spacecraft executed routine checkouts of instrumentation on the spacecraft. OSIRIS-APEX appears to be healthy after the second of six close perihelion passages on its six-year journey to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis.

OSIRIS-APEX successfully passed through its first perihelion earlier in 2024. To reach asteroid Apophis in 2029, the spacecraft must survive four more close encounters with the Sun, the next of which will occur in May 2025.

[StraumliBlight]

NASA to Brief Media on Asteroid Sample Mission Findings [Jan 24]

NASA will brief media at 11 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 29, to provide an update on science results from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission, which delivered a sample of asteroid Bennu to Earth in September 2023.

Audio of the media call will stream live on the agency’s website.

Participants in the teleconference include:
 • Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
 • Danny Glavin, senior scientist for sample return, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland
 • Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist, NASA Goddard
 • Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Washington
 • Sara Russell, cosmic mineralogist, Natural History Museum, London

[StraumliBlight]

Podcast: How NASA Found the Ingredients for Life on an Asteroid [Jan 29]



https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1911684975205798265

On 13 April 2029, the 375-metre asteroid Apophis will safely whizz by Earth, passing closer to the surface than satellites in geostationary orbit. The flyby of Apophis offers a truly unique opportunity to learn more about asteroids and how to protect Earth.

[catdlr]

Podcast: How NASA Found the Ingredients for Life on an Asteroid [Jan 29]

https://twitter.com/dpoddolphinpro/status/1884635262006722814

[catdlr]

[catdlr]

NASA Sample Reveals Life’s Ingredients on an Asteroid! (& Space Defense) | This Week in Spaceflight

[Holger Isenberg]

Smoky-sulfur-slightly-burnt-sugar is the smell of the rock samples from asteroid Bennu brought back by Osiris-REx.

Reference about the smell: https://reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1ied72z/askscience_ama_series_we_just_discovered_the/

That's different than the classic smell of objects exposed to space which produce a ozone and metal scent, like ionization by electric arc welding, explained in this video about the smell of space: https://youtube.com/watch?v=32s8cUgmS4M

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/NASAGoddard/status/1887212742458646982

Asteroid Bennu’s parent body was likely a salty, wet environment – one surprisingly like a lakebed on Earth.
@NASA
 scientists drew similarities between a sample collected from Bennu by the #OSIRISREx mission & minerals from Searles Lake, a dry lake in California’s Mojave Desert.

[yg1968]

NASA’s asteroid mission to Apophis: Key for Earth’s defense
(by Jim Bridenstine and Bill Nye, opinion contributors):

https://thehill.com/opinion/5144645-apophis-close-flyby-earth/

[catdlr]

Breaking down Bennu: OSIRIS-REx finds life’s building blocks in asteroid sample - Planetary Radio

Mar 5, 2025  Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has returned pristine samples from asteroid Bennu to Earth, and the early results are remarkable. Sample analysts have confirmed the presence of abundant organic compounds, nitrogen-rich material, and evidence of past liquid water, all key ingredients that could help us understand the role asteroids played in delivering the building blocks of life to Earth. This week, we’re joined by Scott Sandford, co-investigator on OSIRIS-REx and a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. He explores the first two sample analysis papers published by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team. Then, Bruce Betts joins us for What’s Up, where we look back at humanity’s history of sample return missions.
 

[spacexplorer]

NASA’s asteroid mission to Apophis: Key for Earth’s defense
(by Jim Bridenstine and Bill Nye, opinion contributors):

https://thehill.com/opinion/5144645-apophis-close-flyby-earth/

Apophis various idenifiers:

- 20099942  (SPKID)
- 2099942 (valid as "center" in NASA Horizons, as "@2099942")
- 99942 (valid as "target" in NASA Horizons)
- Apophis
- 2004 MN4

                                                                     
Osiris-Rex id is "-64".

Earth is "399".

You can combine 2099942, -64 and 399 to retrieve distances in a given period using this page, which also creates raw links like this, which gives Osiris/Apophis distance between June 2nd and june 8th 2029, or this one between 13:00 of 5th and 13:00 of 6th (flyby at 15 km).



Apophis/Earth closest approach: 32000 km above Earth surface, 2029/04/13 21:45 GMT

In the same moment Osiris will be 34000 km away from Apophis.