The Planetary Society Blog

Is the Concept Study Report available online?

So a 500 meter wide asteroid takes precedence over Uranus, Neptune, and the newly discovered dwarf planets? What is wrong with NASA? We are going to waste our first mission outside of the Earth's influence on an asteroid anyway! There is something seriously wrong with NASA, and the astronomy community in the US as well. I seriously hope the Russians and the Chinese figure out a way to make NASA look like the absolute morons you really are. And boo to the Planetary Society as well! Try actually researching the planets or moons you talk about instead of posting half-baked theories you hear at parties that were de-bunked decades ago. For example, the tripe that was published suggesting that Hyperion is a captured comet. I believe you had Hyperion confused with Phoebe, Mrs. Lakdawalla.

If we are ever to really fully understand global warming (climate change) and the hot exosolar planets that are being discovered like crazy, we seriously need to ramp up exploration of Venus. It is a planet nearly the same size as Earth and so hostile and I often wonder if Venus was like Earth and went bad and if Venus is our fate. The Planetary Society needs to push for Venus, and I will hope that Japan can recover their spacecraft and that Russia will get back to exploring Venus. In the Discovery selection I am hoping for the Titan Lake Lander.

Dusty rock instead od lake on Titan ?!

B O R I N G !

pathetic

The surprise to me was that *any* mission was chosen. I thought there was zero money for new missions. Sample return to an asteroid sounds way cheaper than going to Saturn or farther, or going to the ground on Venus. There's already a Venus orbiter.

Disclaimer: i haven't really followed how the choices were made.

We'd all like it if we got more for the money spent.

All these targets have merit. A carbonaceous asteroid is a first, and I like the astrobiology know how which ties in to exoplanet search as much as understanding Neptunes.

I hope the mission is as successful as Hayabusa was. When you go cheap you get cheap results. This is about space exploration, not economics. With the money we wasted on the Iraq war we could have a city on the moon by now. !@#$% Charles Bolden too.

One important thing to note about this most recent New Frontiers selection process was that the final decision was delivered a month ahead of schedule, which implies enthusiastic and unanimous agreement amongst the decision makers. In fact, at the final proposal defense there were surprisingly few questions directed towards the principle presenters of the OSIRIS-REx mission. This is highly unusual and subsequent to the award it appears to confirm that the competition was won decisively.

That being said, it should also be noted that OSIRIS-REx was first proposed as a Discovery series mission, which have lower cost thresholds, where it was not chosen. Perhaps the main problem with some of the losing mission proposals mentioned in the comments above, for both the Discovery and New Frontiers programs, that may appear "sexier" at first glance is that they are not being realistic about their cost estimates.

This selection process is a lot like peer-reviewed science, those that sit in judgment are well versed in all aspects of the proposals and must weigh a realistic assessment of the mission cost versus the likelihood of a high value scientific return on their investment. OSIRIS-REx apparently met or surpassed all of the selection criteria with flying colors and I very much look forward to its successful implementation.

@Emily/Bruce: Not sure why but I thought you might be interested in the official KinetX press release on this topic...

KinetX, Inc. Provides Key Mission Design and Navigation Support for New NASA Asteroid Science Mission

On Wednesday, May 25, 2011, NASA announced a new robotic science mission to be launched in 2016 that will retrieve samples from an asteroid. The mission, called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth. KinetX, Inc., a Tempe, Arizona based private corporation, has partnered with the OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator, Dr. Michael Drake of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to be the primary provider of deep space mission design and navigation for the mission. Starting later this year, KinetX will begin participating in the development of the mission and navigation systems that will be implemented and tested by the 2016 launch. After launch, KinetX personnel will perform mission design and navigation operations including trajectory optimization, orbit determination and propulsive maneuver design to guide the spacecraft to a soft touch-down on the asteroid surface in 2020 to collect the sample. KinetX will also provide these services for the return flight to Earth, which begins with departure from the asteroid in 2021 and ends with arrival at Earth in 2023.

KinetX, Inc. is the first commercial entity to provide spacecraft navigation services for NASA interplanetary missions and is currently providing similar mission design and navigation services for two NASA missions: the MESSENGER mission that is currently orbiting the planet Mercury and the New Horizons mission that is on its way to fly by Pluto in 2015.

This is still a stupid idea and a waste of resources, no matter how many official press releases you post. Is the DAWN mission not good enough for you people? There are two PLANETS, not asteroids, but PLANETS!, that have not had their own dedicated missions, and we are wasting our time on a rock. Talking to NASA and its deluded supporters is like talking to a brick wall. How can astronomers be so incredibly dense and short-sighted? Also, about the big news that Io has magma? OOOh, big surprise, we all could tell that from the big volcanoes erupting in the old Voyager pics. Astronomers, get a clue.

@Charlton: Sounds a little bit like sour grapes to me...

In all fairness, Uranus and Neptune never were contenders for this round of New Frontiers. OSIRIS' competitors were a Venus lander, and a sample return from far side of the Moon.

I also would favor missions to Uranus and Neptune however the money is not there.
OSIRIS-REx will also set the newly obtained knowledge to help track and maybe deflect asteroids in a better way than nuking them.
Since it has a 1 in 1,800 chance of hitting us in 2082 we need to act now since it is not the only asteroid than can potentially hit us. Uranus and Neptune must wait until Congress gets with the program.
The buffoon here is Charlton Ard for not going after Congress. The majority of NASA's decisions are based upon Congressional funding thus limitations. For some incomprehensible reason Ard cannot comprehend this reality. People with his mentality casue the space program to flounder. This is partially their fault NASA is so restrained. Perhaps Mr. Perfect can take EW's job since the very human lady is no longer perfect.

Studying an asteroid makes sense to me; we're unlikely ever to be struck by a planet, or to get many mineral resources from one. Both are possibilities with an asteroid.

Any scientist would agree with this mission targets, but.....
As mission are only possible with the taxpayer's money... Maybe a more popular target would have drawn attention and adhesion of the U.S. and foreigner fans !!!!!

Honestly, I do go after Congress with this kind of stuff. But NASA is the organization that submits the proposals to Congress in the first place. Yes I may resemble one of Aesop's fables, and yes sometimes I may be a true buffoon, I will admit that. The sad truth is that the same amount of money that will be spent on OSIRIS-Rex could be spent on a Cassini-level mission to Uranus or Neptune. NASA and the astronomers that work for it are the ones that are unable or unwilling to suggest meaningful targets for exploration. This is why I say Charles Bolden is an idiot and a pushover. He does not fight for NASA or the astronomy community. The issue with DAWN's navigation pictures alone should tell you that there is something seriously wrong at NASA. But please, by all means, enjoy the rock samples you may or may not get from this asteroid. I can only hope now that the ESA, with the Uranus Pathfinder mission, or the Russians, or the Chinese have a bit more foresight in their attempts at space exploration. Do you know the saying about don't shoot the messenger? Planetary society, I rest my case. ;)

A Cassini-level mission to Uranus/Neptune for the same cost? Seriously?

OSIRIS-REx has a budget of $800 Million, while Cassini cost $3.5 Billion (unadjusted for inflation). Do you have $2.7 Billion just lying around for NASA to borrow?

You might be able to get a New Horizons fly-by mission for the same cost. But we've already flown that mission in 1977.

Your math is impeccable because both OSIRIS-REx and New Horizons are NASA New Frontiers program series missions with a similar cost-cap. Cassini is a "flagship" mission basically without a cost cap. These are the types of things that milk NASA's budget dry, while New Frontiers and Discovery are of the "better, cheaper, faster" variety. Which is exactly why they have allowed a small innovative private company like KinetX to become a player in a field long dominated by now out of control behemoths like JPL, who have been trying to kill us in the crib for the past ten years.

BTW, did I mention that KinetX also does the mission navigation for New Horizons? And MESSENGER too, which has been a spectacular success by all accounts. The reason folks like Charlton are pissed is that the OSIRIS-REx award pretty much assures that KinetX will survive into the foreseeable future doing what we've been doing, providing low-cost and efficient space navigation services, and another option where there used to be a monopoly.