How to Prepare a Spacecraft to Grab an Asteroid Sample

Hi I’m Beth Buck. I’m with Lockheed Martin, and I’m the Deep Space Exploration Mission Operations Program Manager which includes OSIRIS-REx, and our team is taking the latest navigation updates and building, testing, and reviewing the final product today that then tomorrow will be uplinked and commanded to the spacecraft to run through all the operations leading up to our touch and go actual sample collection. We’re going to be using natural feature tracking that’s been designed and built while we’re using imagery from our mapping at Bennu over the last two years to come into the Nightingale site. Once we actually take this sample in our TAGSAM or our Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism We will then bring that back into the sample return capsule and bring that back to earth in three years. We can’t wait for this big event tomorrow to actually go TAG the asteroid Bennu and get a sample. .