KinetX Aerospace Navigation Team Critical to Performing the Touch and Go (TAG) Sample Collection from Asteroid (101955) Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission
SIMI VALLEY, Calif., October 20, 2020 ─ Carrying out precise navigation operations to leave orbit and approach the surface of asteroid (101955) Bennu, the KinetX Aerospace Space Navigation and Flight Dynamics Navigation Team is providing critical results to NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Flight for the historic collection of a sample of the surface of Bennu. The spacecraft will not land on the surface, but will instead perform a Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection from the surface. KinetX Aerospace is the lead organization responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (built and operated by Lockheed Martin Space) – the first NASA mission to obtain a sample from the surface of an asteroid and return it to Earth. The mission and science team are led by OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona.
Sample collection will not require landing the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on the surface; rather, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will slowly descend to a predetermined site on Bennu named ‘Nightingale’ and touch the asteroid for around 10 seconds with its Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM). TAGSAM uses a burst of compressed nitrogen gas to mobilize the asteroid’s loose surface material and then captures it in an air-filter-like device. Once collection is complete, the spacecraft will back away from the surface to a safe distance. If the first attempt is unsuccessful, the spacecraft has enough nitrogen gas for two other attempts.
KinetX, working with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft since launch on September 8, 2016, to rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu, establishing unprecedented orbits about Bennu, and eventually returning the sample to Earth. KinetX Aerospace is the only non-government group to lead a deep space navigation effort with NASA, and has proven its ability to provide customers with high quality mission design and navigation, from pre-launch planning through orbit operations to end-of-mission procedures, working closely with other mission teams.