Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: how Stuff Rex and I Heart Radio and I love
Speaker 1: all things tech. And On June twelve, two thousand nineteen,
Speaker 1: a small spacecraft called Osiris Rex set a new out
Speaker 1: of this world record. That record was for entering the
Speaker 1: closest orbit around a small planetary body, and the record
Speaker 1: was previously held by well Osirius Rex, but now it
Speaker 1: was really extra super close, like six d eight meters
Speaker 1: or less than unred feet close. The planetary body is
Speaker 1: the asteroid Bnu b e nn you. It will eventually
Speaker 1: get even closer to Benu. The plan is for the
Speaker 1: spacecraft to make contact with the asteroid for the purposes
Speaker 1: of collecting a sample, then it will begin its journey
Speaker 1: back to Earth. Right now, it's taking a series of
Speaker 1: images of the asteroid, partly so that a team back
Speaker 1: here on Earth can evaluate the best spot to make
Speaker 1: that point of contact. It turns out Benu is a
Speaker 1: bit more bumpy than we anticipated, so finding a spot
Speaker 1: that will be suitable for a Cyrus Rex and given
Speaker 1: the best chance for a successful mission is no small
Speaker 1: task in of itself. That's the short version of the story.
Speaker 1: But today I want to talk more about the mission,
Speaker 1: the technology, and the long term plan to mine asteroids
Speaker 1: as part of the overall strategy for deep space operations.
Speaker 1: And this isn't the first time I've talked about asteroid mining.
Speaker 1: Way back in June two thousand twelve, my co host
Speaker 1: Chris Palette and I talked about this idea, and we
Speaker 1: also replayed that episode in May two thousand nineteen. So
Speaker 1: some of this might sound a bit familiar since I'll
Speaker 1: be tackling a similar subject, but it's well overdue for
Speaker 1: a follow up, So let's begin with a high level
Speaker 1: view of what asteroid mining is all about. There are
Speaker 1: many different types of asteroids out there. They formed over
Speaker 1: billions of years from the same proto planetary dust that
Speaker 1: orbited the Sun and eventually formed the planets and moons
Speaker 1: of our Solar System. Some of those asteroids were formed
Speaker 1: just by particles of dust crashing into one another and
Speaker 1: forming larger particles eventually growing into small rocks, and then
Speaker 1: you know, less small rocks into big honking rocks. Some
Speaker 1: formed after other planetary bodies had collisions and ejected matter
Speaker 1: out into space as a result. But in general, you've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of rocky stuff floating around the Solar System.
Speaker 1: And I said there are many different types of asteroids,
Speaker 1: and that is true, but it's also a bit complicated,
Speaker 1: and that's because there's actually more than one way to
Speaker 1: classify asteroids. You could classify them by their location. For example,
Speaker 1: most of the asteroids we know about are in orbit
Speaker 1: in what we call the asteroid belt appropriately enough, and
Speaker 1: that's between the orbits of Mars and Jubiter. Now there
Speaker 1: are other asteroids called near Earth asteroids, which, as the
Speaker 1: name suggests, have orbits that take them close to the Earth.
Speaker 1: These can sometimes pose what is called a problem, And
Speaker 1: by a problem, I mean that a sufficiently large enough
Speaker 1: asteroid could cause global devastation should collide with Earth, you know,
Speaker 1: fun times. But we can also classify asteroids based on
Speaker 1: what they are made out of. There are three major
Speaker 1: classes of asteroids. The most common type that we know
Speaker 1: about is C type or chondrite asteroids. These are made
Speaker 1: up of silicate rocks and clay and have some carbonaceous
Speaker 1: material in them. They are in the outer regions of
Speaker 1: the asteroid belt. They are dark and thus hard to spot,
Speaker 1: but they make up about of all known asteroids. Then
Speaker 1: you've got S type or silicaceous asteroids or stony asteroids.
Speaker 1: They consist of nickel, iron, and silicate materials primarily, and
Speaker 1: they tend to be brighter than C type asteroids, and
Speaker 1: most of those inhabit the inner asteroid belt. Then you've
Speaker 1: got M type or metallic asteroids that are made primarily
Speaker 1: from nickel and iron. They make up about eight percent
Speaker 1: of all known asteroids, and they're mostly in the middle
Speaker 1: region of the asteroid belt, and they also are brighter
Speaker 1: than C type asteroids. Now those are the major types,
Speaker 1: but they're also A type asteroids, B type, D type asteroids,
Speaker 1: and so on. These represent rare or extremely rare types
Speaker 1: of asteroids, and some are considered subtypes of the more
Speaker 1: common variants. Some are kind of a split between different
Speaker 1: major types. They're different enough to justify a subclassification. There's
Speaker 1: somewhere in between the major versions. Benu, the asteroid that
Speaker 1: osiris rex orbits, is one of these smaller subclassifications. It's
Speaker 1: technically a B type asteroid. B type asteroids are a
Speaker 1: subcategory of C type asteroids, which, as I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: make up the vast majority of the known asteroids that
Speaker 1: we've observed so far. That's one of the reasons the
Speaker 1: Osiris REX team selected Benu, But I'll get back to that.
Speaker 1: So asteroid mining, that's the name suggests, involves harvesting resources
Speaker 1: from asteroids. Those resources could include volatile substances like trapped
Speaker 1: gases within the molecular structure of the asteroid. Metals are
Speaker 1: another possible resource, and asteroid mining could go after stuff
Speaker 1: like platinum. Water is another big resource as it could
Speaker 1: be used to produce rocket fuel, among other things. Most
Speaker 1: deep space exploration strategies include some sort of asteroid mining component,
Speaker 1: as it would mean making use of materials that are
Speaker 1: already out in space to support the mission, which reduces
Speaker 1: the need to carry more stuff with you when you're
Speaker 1: launching from Earth. In fact, the concept of asteroid mining
Speaker 1: is all about being able to leverage stuff out in
Speaker 1: space while we're exploring or colonizing space. It's not about
Speaker 1: bringing resources back to Earth, but rather limiting the resources
Speaker 1: we need need to bring from Earth out into space.
Speaker 1: And that's a big deal. The more massive the payload
Speaker 1: of your spacecraft, the more fuel you need to get
Speaker 1: off the ground, and that could necessitate the design of
Speaker 1: new launch vehicles if the payload you're looking at is
Speaker 1: heavy enough and the fuel itself is really expensive. So
Speaker 1: if you can reduce the amount of fuel you need,
Speaker 1: then you bring down the complexity and the cost of
Speaker 1: a launch. And it's absolutely necessary to do something like
Speaker 1: asteroid mining if we want to send people to places
Speaker 1: like Mars and have them be able to get back again.
Speaker 1: If those who travel to Mars can make use of
Speaker 1: the resources that are actually on the Red planet using
Speaker 1: techniques that we've perfected through asteroid mining, then they can
Speaker 1: do that to produce their own rocket fuel. They can
Speaker 1: manufacture their own fuel they need to return to Earth.
Speaker 1: There would be no need to carry twice as much
Speaker 1: fuel on board to make a round trip. Moreover, harvesting
Speaker 1: resources from asteroids could yield us the materials we need
Speaker 1: to build structures out in space in the first place.
Speaker 1: So instead of launching spacecraft that are carrying components and
Speaker 1: modules that then have to be assemboled in orbit or
Speaker 1: in deep space, we could get the raw materials in
Speaker 1: space itself and establish orbiting manufacturing facilities. Again, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have to take stuff from Earth incident on into space,
Speaker 1: because we'd be harvesting all that raw materials from other
Speaker 1: bodies in space. Of course, all of this is easy
Speaker 1: to talk about in the hypothetical. Actually building the equipment
Speaker 1: that can make this possible is another matter entirely, and
Speaker 1: while we can be theoretical about it, being practical requires
Speaker 1: a whole lot more work. Oh, cyrus Rex and other
Speaker 1: projects are building the foundation upon which we can actually
Speaker 1: construct this asteroid mining future. So let's talk more about
Speaker 1: that mission and the spacecraft. One thing the team had
Speaker 1: to do must figure out which asteroid to select for
Speaker 1: a mission in the first place. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: millions of them. So how did they settle on Benu
Speaker 1: metaphorically speaking, since the spacecraft has not, as the recording
Speaker 1: of this podcast, literally settled on the asteroid. There are
Speaker 1: more than half a million identified asteroids in the Solar System.
Speaker 1: So why did the team choose Benu? Well, first, they
Speaker 1: decided the asteroid couldn't be too far away that would
Speaker 1: make it impractical to journey there. So the further way
Speaker 1: the asteroid, the harder it is to get there, and
Speaker 1: the potential for failure increases as distance increases. For that reason,
Speaker 1: the team wanted to focus on asteroids that fall into
Speaker 1: the category of near Earth objects or an EOS. Near
Speaker 1: is a relative term, mind you, they're not just a
Speaker 1: quick jaunt away. To be classified as an n EO,
Speaker 1: the object has to be within one point three astronomical
Speaker 1: units from the Sun in their orbits. A single astronomical
Speaker 1: unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Speaker 1: That means it's about ninety three million miles or around
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty million kilometers. That makes one point three
Speaker 1: astronomical units at around a hundred twenty million, eight hundred
Speaker 1: thousand miles or one four million, five hundred thousand kilometers. So,
Speaker 1: as I said, near is relative, but that's because space
Speaker 1: is really big. An EOS can sometimes pose a potential
Speaker 1: hazard to Earth. These asteroids are in a subcategory called
Speaker 1: potentially hazardous asteroids or p h a's, and ben Wu
Speaker 1: happens to be one of those. There is a small
Speaker 1: chance that the asteroid could collide with Earth late in
Speaker 1: the twenty second century, and by small chance, I mean
Speaker 1: we currently estimate the odds of it happening are less
Speaker 1: than point zero four percent. But still, when you're looking
Speaker 1: at the potential for devastation. Any chance isn't you know great?
Speaker 1: But back to choosing Benu. So Benu was one of
Speaker 1: just a d two asteroids that had an earth like
Speaker 1: orbit with low eccentricity, so it's got a nice stable
Speaker 1: orbit that's pretty similar to Earth's. Out of all the
Speaker 1: thousands there are more than seven thousand year Earth objects
Speaker 1: that they were looking at, only two met that criteria,
Speaker 1: and ben Wu was one of those two. Next, the
Speaker 1: team looked at the size of the remaining candidates, because
Speaker 1: smaller asteroids rotate faster than larger ones, and fast rotating
Speaker 1: asteroids can eject material out into space and that could
Speaker 1: pose a problem for any spacecraft that is flying nearby
Speaker 1: or trying to make contact with that asteroid. So the
Speaker 1: team needed to rule out any asteroids that had a
Speaker 1: diameter smaller than two hundreds because they would probably be
Speaker 1: spinning too quickly. That eliminated all but twenty six of
Speaker 1: the candidates ben who's diameter, by the way, is approximately
Speaker 1: five and we have to use approximations in part because
Speaker 1: Benu is a big, lumpy rock, so it all depends
Speaker 1: upon where you're doing the measuring. Then there's the asteroids composition.
Speaker 1: Out of the twenty six remaining in NEOs that were
Speaker 1: under consideration, not much was known about fourteen of them,
Speaker 1: so those were out. Out of the twelve remaining in eos,
Speaker 1: only five are known to be rich in carbon and
Speaker 1: other materials like volatiles, and therefore they have the potential
Speaker 1: to have or anic materials sort of the building blocks
Speaker 1: of life, not necessarily any proof of life forms on
Speaker 1: the asteroid itself, but rather the basic components that together
Speaker 1: could form a life. And so Benu and four other
Speaker 1: asteroids were left on the list, and the team eventually
Speaker 1: chose Benu from those few remaining and eos that were
Speaker 1: under consideration. To complete a full orbit, it takes Bnu
Speaker 1: about four hundred thirty six Earth days to go around
Speaker 1: the Sun. Every half dozen years, Benu gets fairly close
Speaker 1: to Earth, as the respective orbits of Benu and our
Speaker 1: planet bring the two bodies within point zero zero two
Speaker 1: astronomical units of each other. And as I said late
Speaker 1: in the twenty second century, that's going to happen about
Speaker 1: eight times, really fairly close to one another. But the
Speaker 1: chance of a collision is is fairly really small, not
Speaker 1: fairly small, less than point zero four percent. Still it's
Speaker 1: a possibility. Now when we come back, I'll talk more
Speaker 1: about the spacecraft itself before moving on to talk of
Speaker 1: other technology and development. They'll bring us close to mining asteroids.
Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about o Cyrus Rex. First, let's talk about the name. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty confident that the name was one of those
Speaker 1: where they came up with the name first and then
Speaker 1: retroactively worked to turn that name into an acronym. Osirius
Speaker 1: is the name of the ancient Egyptian god of the
Speaker 1: afterlife and rebirth. Benu, the asteroid, happens to also have
Speaker 1: an Egyptian name, is named after a mythical bird in
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptian lore, which played a part in creating the
Speaker 1: world itself. So my guess is that the team was
Speaker 1: working on this spacecraft, they selected Benu as the asteroid
Speaker 1: they were going to visit, and Benu was named back
Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve, so this is probably all happening
Speaker 1: around the same time, and then they decided to go
Speaker 1: with a similar theme and they chose an Egyptian reference
Speaker 1: when they named their own spacecraft. That's a guess on
Speaker 1: my part. Now, officially, the acronym stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation,
Speaker 1: Resource Identification, Security, Regular Leath, Explorer Cyrus REX, and the
Speaker 1: X is in lower case because explorer all the other
Speaker 1: letters are upper case. Now, I think my guess that
Speaker 1: it was a retroactive acronym, as a fair one with
Speaker 1: a name like that doesn't just roll off the tongue.
Speaker 1: But hey, I could be totally wrong. This is again
Speaker 1: just a guess on my part. Maybe they came up
Speaker 1: with the long name and then someone looked at the
Speaker 1: initials and said hang on, and it was just gissemn. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about the equipment on O Cyrus REX in
Speaker 1: a second, but first I want to talk about the
Speaker 1: overall mission. The spacecraft launched as part of the payload
Speaker 1: on a Atlas five rocket on September eight, two thousand sixteen.
Speaker 1: About a year later, the Earth gave Osiris REX an
Speaker 1: assist by way of a gravity boost. So Osiris kind
Speaker 1: of entered into an orbit, and then in order to
Speaker 1: put it on a intercept trajectory with Benu. As it
Speaker 1: was completing this orbit and getting close to the Earth,
Speaker 1: it passed near the Earth so it would get pulled
Speaker 1: by Earth's gravity then used a deflection strategy to put
Speaker 1: itself on it's its intercept trajectory with Benu and was
Speaker 1: able to get a little speed boost that way. Another
Speaker 1: year later, in August two eighteen, the spacecraft transitioned into
Speaker 1: the approach phase. At this point, Osiris Rex was still
Speaker 1: about two million kilometers or one point two million miles
Speaker 1: away from Benu. This phase actually lasted several months and
Speaker 1: would end on December third, two thousand eight team when
Speaker 1: no Cyrus Rex was able to get a visual on
Speaker 1: Benu and was starting to create a sort of map
Speaker 1: for the team on Earth to study. Starting on December third, ten,
Speaker 1: the spacecraft entered into the next phase, the preliminary survey phase.
Speaker 1: At a distance of about seven kilometers or four point
Speaker 1: three miles, a Cirrus Rex passed over the north pole,
Speaker 1: equator and south pole of Benu a total of five times,
Speaker 1: and the data was sent back to Earth so that
Speaker 1: scientists could estimate things like the asteroids mass and get
Speaker 1: a better idea for the shape of the asteroids, also
Speaker 1: to learn how the asteroid was spinning in orbit, which
Speaker 1: is all valuable information for planning the upcoming phases that
Speaker 1: would follow next, on December thirty first, two thousand eighteen,
Speaker 1: the spacecraft entered into a very close orbit with Benu,
Speaker 1: which ranged from about one point six to two point
Speaker 1: one kilometers in altitude above the asteroid or about point
Speaker 1: nine nine to one point three miles not at the time,
Speaker 1: this was the closest spacecraft had ever orbited a small
Speaker 1: body in space, so this was the first time Osiris
Speaker 1: REX set a record for that. And it was in
Speaker 1: this phase that the navigation technique switched from being star
Speaker 1: based in other words, it was using the stars to
Speaker 1: navigate where it was going to becoming a landmarked based
Speaker 1: navigation system, so now it's in respect to the asteroid itself.
Speaker 1: During this phase, the navigation team on Earth could practice
Speaker 1: maneuvering the spacecraft near the asteroid, which would be important
Speaker 1: for the later phases as well. So each phase kind
Speaker 1: of set the ground for the next phase, and that
Speaker 1: next phase began on February two thousand nineteen. This one
Speaker 1: was called the Detailed Survey Baseball Diamond phase and had
Speaker 1: gotten that name early in the mission design process because
Speaker 1: originally the plan was to have Osiris REX move around
Speaker 1: in orbit in a shape reminiscent of a baseball diamond,
Speaker 1: and the actual pattern changed during the mission design phase,
Speaker 1: but the name stuck. Now. The purpose of those movements
Speaker 1: is to produce a bunch of viewing angles of Benu's
Speaker 1: surface to get a better idea not just of where
Speaker 1: Osiris Rex might eventually make contact, but also teach us
Speaker 1: more about what the asteroid is actually made out of.
Speaker 1: Next was the detailed Survey Equatorial Stations phase, and that
Speaker 1: phase was much more about finding an appropriate collection site
Speaker 1: for the Osiris REX to take samples from the asteroid.
Speaker 1: I'll cover that actual process in just a second, and
Speaker 1: it's super cool, but before that can happen, the team
Speaker 1: has to determine the right spot for it. The goal
Speaker 1: of the phase was to select up to twelve potential
Speaker 1: collection sites on the surface of Benu. This has proven
Speaker 1: to be trickier than you think. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: Benu is a bumpy little sucker, so finding spots that
Speaker 1: are smooth and flat enough has been really challenging. The
Speaker 1: team also has looked for evidence of loose regulars on
Speaker 1: the surface of the asteroid. That's the loose soil. Essentially,
Speaker 1: it's the stuff that the spacecraft will ultimately try to
Speaker 1: collect on its sampling mission. The current phase that it's
Speaker 1: in is orbital B. That's what broke the record that
Speaker 1: Osiris REX had set during the orbital A phase by
Speaker 1: getting even closer to Benu. Right now, Osiris REX is
Speaker 1: gathering information that will be used to create as accurate
Speaker 1: a three D model for the asteroids shape as we
Speaker 1: can manage. It will also conduct a radio science experiment
Speaker 1: during this phase, and the result of this phase is
Speaker 1: meant to help the team determine which of those up
Speaker 1: to twelve candidates would be best to focus on to
Speaker 1: really eliminate ten of those twelve. So they're looking at
Speaker 1: three criteria to select two potential landing spots. Those three
Speaker 1: criteria are safety, sample ability, and science value. So it
Speaker 1: needs to be able to score high on all three
Speaker 1: of those to be considered a potential collection site. And
Speaker 1: as I said, they will select two of them. One
Speaker 1: of them will be the prime target, their number one choice,
Speaker 1: and the second is their backup. Now, at the conclusion
Speaker 1: of this phase of Cyrus REX will then enter a
Speaker 1: third orbit, orbit See, but this one will actually be
Speaker 1: further out than orbit will be, so orbit will See
Speaker 1: will move o Cyrus Rex to about one point three
Speaker 1: kilometers above the surface of the asteroid as it examines
Speaker 1: particles on and around venue. Next, o Cirius Rex will
Speaker 1: enter into a recon phase where it will take a
Speaker 1: very close look at those two potential collection sites, and
Speaker 1: it's going to pass at an altitude of around two
Speaker 1: d or seven hundred thirty eight feet above benus surface.
Speaker 1: At that distance, the cameras aboard the Osiris Rex can
Speaker 1: focus on objects as small as two meters in size.
Speaker 1: The team can then determine if their initial site or
Speaker 1: the backup site would be the best bet for the
Speaker 1: actual collection, so they can narrow their choices down to
Speaker 1: their actual you know end target. Before committing to that course,
Speaker 1: the team will hold a couple of rehearsal events. They
Speaker 1: will practice moving the spacecraft out of its orbit to
Speaker 1: fly above the landing site, initially at an altitude of
Speaker 1: about four hundred ten feet or one ms above the
Speaker 1: collection site. Then they will maneuver the Osiris Rex back
Speaker 1: into orbit. On the second rehearsal, the Osiris Rex will
Speaker 1: actually descend further and hover over the collection site, well
Speaker 1: over it, but still over it, before returning to orbit again.
Speaker 1: After all of that, if assuing all of it goes
Speaker 1: well at showtime. The critical phase is called TAG, and
Speaker 1: TAG stands for touch and go, which should happen in Also,
Speaker 1: i've heard people erroneously say that the game tag stands
Speaker 1: for touch and go. That does not appear to be true.
Speaker 1: The etymology of the word is older than that particular
Speaker 1: phrase has been, so I don't think that that really
Speaker 1: applies to the game tag, but it certainly applies to
Speaker 1: this process with os Cyrus Rex. I'll explain what the
Speaker 1: collection process is in just a moment. But after that phase,
Speaker 1: the spacecraft's thrusters will push it back from Beneu to
Speaker 1: a safe distance and it will kind of chill out
Speaker 1: at that safe distance until March one. At that time
Speaker 1: it will enter into the return cruise phase, and that's
Speaker 1: what's supposed to bring Osiris Rex home. So why is
Speaker 1: it waiting. It's waiting because, just as I've talked about,
Speaker 1: when it comes to going from Earth to Mars, you
Speaker 1: have to wait for the orbits of the different bodies
Speaker 1: to aligne up properly to make the trip up as
Speaker 1: efficiently as possible. So that won't happen until March one. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that's when Osiris REX can start its intercept trajectory
Speaker 1: to Earth anyway onto the spacecraft itself with its solar
Speaker 1: panels deployed. It measures six point two meters or twenty
Speaker 1: point to five feet in length. It's two point four
Speaker 1: meters wide. Uh, that's essentially eight feet, and it's sort
Speaker 1: of like a rectangular prism, so the width measured either
Speaker 1: left right or up down with respect to its length
Speaker 1: is the same. It weighs two thousand rams when full
Speaker 1: of fuel. That's about four thousand, six hundred fifty pounds,
Speaker 1: so it's hefty when it's fully fuelled. The spacecraft is
Speaker 1: home to five science instruments as well as the system
Speaker 1: called tag SAM. Tag SAM stands for Touch and Goes
Speaker 1: Sample Acquisition Mechanism, so this is the actual device that's
Speaker 1: going to do the collecting. The tag SAM is part
Speaker 1: of the Osiris REX that will actually make contact with Benu,
Speaker 1: and it looks kind of like a pogo stick that
Speaker 1: extends out from one side of the spacecraft, but this
Speaker 1: is a pretty powerful pogo stick. Inside of the tag
Speaker 1: SAM is a mechanism that will direct a jet of
Speaker 1: nitrogen gas to quote fluid ize regular to allow the
Speaker 1: sample head to capture granular material, while contact pads capture
Speaker 1: fine material end quote. So it's blasting the surface with
Speaker 1: this jet of gas and then collecting what ends up
Speaker 1: flying out. The whole process should last about five seconds.
Speaker 1: Then springs in the tag SAM will actually expand, pushing
Speaker 1: Osiris rex off the surface of Benu, so you could
Speaker 1: argue it really is like a high tech pogo stick.
Speaker 1: The team on Earth will initiate commands to make Osiris
Speaker 1: rex spin, and the purpose for that is to figure
Speaker 1: out how much stuff did it actually collect. They will
Speaker 1: monitor the change in the spacecraft's inertia, and by looking
Speaker 1: at the difference in inertia between when the spacecraft was
Speaker 1: had before it had taken the sample and after it
Speaker 1: had taken the sample, they can then deduce how much
Speaker 1: material it actually collected, and if it's not enough, the
Speaker 1: spacecraft actually has enough nitrogen gas to make two more
Speaker 1: attempts before it runs out, so it can do three
Speaker 1: of these collection leaps before it is done. Mechanisms in
Speaker 1: the spacecraft will move the sample from the tag SAM
Speaker 1: tool to a sample return capsule UH or s r C.
Speaker 1: It's essentially a protected container designed to be retrieved when
Speaker 1: Osiris rex gets back to Earth. More on that than
Speaker 1: a bit. As for the other scientific instruments I did
Speaker 1: mention there were five of them. They include the O
Speaker 1: Cam's instrument Suite that's a collection of special cameras that
Speaker 1: are taking all those amazing images of Benu right now,
Speaker 1: and honestly, if you have and scends, go online and
Speaker 1: search for Benu b in b E n n U
Speaker 1: asteroid because the most recent photos are pretty amazing. Then
Speaker 1: they have a laser altimeter or o l A that
Speaker 1: is using lasers to create a detailed three D map
Speaker 1: of bnus shape. And I've talked about how these worked before,
Speaker 1: but the basic idea is that you have a laser
Speaker 1: and you have a sensor, So you fire the laser
Speaker 1: and the sensor picks up the reflections of the laser
Speaker 1: after the laser has made contact with the surface of
Speaker 1: whatever it is you're aiming at. By looking at how
Speaker 1: long it took for the laser to travel from the
Speaker 1: laser point to hit the the surface of the substance
Speaker 1: and then back for the sensor to pick it up,
Speaker 1: you can tell how far away or how close something is.
Speaker 1: So if you do this a lot, if you know
Speaker 1: how far away you are from the object, and you
Speaker 1: do this a lot across the surface of the object.
Speaker 1: You can use that information to make a detailed map
Speaker 1: of the surface features of whatever that object is. And
Speaker 1: we do this on Earth too, but it's very useful
Speaker 1: out in space. And then you've got the thermal emission
Speaker 1: spectrometer or O t E s OTIS. The spectrometer's job
Speaker 1: is to analyze the mineral and chemical composition of Benu,
Speaker 1: as well as to measure the surface temperature of the asteroid. Next,
Speaker 1: you've got the Visible and Infrared Spectrometer or OVERS. The
Speaker 1: O in all of these, by the way, stands for
Speaker 1: osiris REX. This particular instrument is going to measure light
Speaker 1: from Binu both in the visible and near infrared spectrum,
Speaker 1: and that analysis could indicate the presence of stuff like
Speaker 1: water or organic material. Finally, there's the regular X ray
Speaker 1: imaging spectrometer or REXUS, which will image X ray emissions
Speaker 1: from Benu, and that will tell us which elements are
Speaker 1: most abundant on the asteroid, So it kind of gives
Speaker 1: us an idea of how much concentration there is of
Speaker 1: each element that's present. So in March two, THO one.
Speaker 1: Assuming everything went well, the Osiris Rex spacecraft will begin
Speaker 1: its journey back to Earth. They will enter into an
Speaker 1: orbit around the Sun that again will bring it close
Speaker 1: enough to the Earth for the next part of the
Speaker 1: mission to commence, and that will happen in the fall
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, so from twenty to the spring
Speaker 1: of one to the fall of tree it will be
Speaker 1: in this orbit. So it takes a long time to
Speaker 1: get around in space, particularly when all the stuff out
Speaker 1: in space insists on moving around in orbits and stuff.
Speaker 1: So when it's close enough, then the spacecraft is going
Speaker 1: to jettison that sample return capsule to put it on
Speaker 1: an intercept trajectory towards Earth, like an actual collision course
Speaker 1: towards Earth. Then Osiris Rex will follow a deflection maneuver
Speaker 1: and place itself in a stable orbit around the Sun
Speaker 1: where it won't be in the way of anything. The
Speaker 1: capsule will in our Earth's atmosphere, and when it reaches
Speaker 1: an altitude of twenty point eight miles or thirty three
Speaker 1: point five kilometers, it will deploy a drogue pair a
Speaker 1: shoote and when it descends to one point nine miles
Speaker 1: in altitude or three kilometers. Then it will deploy the
Speaker 1: main parachute. Assuming all goes as planned, it should touch
Speaker 1: down in Utah on Septembree. Pretty amazing to have it
Speaker 1: all plotted out to the day, this far in advance,
Speaker 1: and it just tells you how exact these processes have
Speaker 1: to be. Now. Upon retrieval again, assuming everything's gone well,
Speaker 1: the contents of that capsule will undergo incredible scrutiny and analysis.
Speaker 1: Researchers will look for any signs of organic compounds. In
Speaker 1: the end, will learn a lot about stuff that could
Speaker 1: come in useful for many future missions, including dealing with
Speaker 1: potentially hazardous asteroids and asteroid mining. More on that in
Speaker 1: just a bit, but first let's take another quick break.
Speaker 1: While o Cyrus rex was sending back incredible photos of
Speaker 1: Benu from just a few hundred meters away, other space
Speaker 1: news was also focusing on asteroids and our future with them,
Speaker 1: NASA awarded a grant to a company called trans Astronautica Corporation.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just referred to as Transastra. The company is
Speaker 1: designing flight systems that follow the asteroid provided institute supplies
Speaker 1: structure or APIs architecture, as the name implies, This type
Speaker 1: of technology is meant to harvest materials from asteroids in
Speaker 1: space rather than taking the asteroids somewhere else to mind them.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of different designs that follow
Speaker 1: this particular concept. Some of them are landers or rovers
Speaker 1: that can use my various mining techniques to pull stuff
Speaker 1: out from asteroids or collect regularly from the surface. But
Speaker 1: transastras design is a little different. They call their approach
Speaker 1: the Mini B system, and really they have a whole
Speaker 1: collection of different devices of different sizes that fall under
Speaker 1: this general category. The Mini BE itself is sort of
Speaker 1: a prototype, proof of concept spacecraft. It's a two m spacecraft,
Speaker 1: so it's not it's not as big as the future
Speaker 1: versions are going to be, but it will serve as
Speaker 1: a test bed for a type of mining called optical mining,
Speaker 1: meant to largely extracts stuff like volatiles and water from asteroids. Now,
Speaker 1: in the case with the Mini BE, it will work
Speaker 1: with a simulated asteroid to make sure that everything is
Speaker 1: working the way it's supposed to uh. The many BE
Speaker 1: will capture the simulated asteroid the way the B spacecraft
Speaker 1: are are designed. They have a large chamber that is
Speaker 1: essentially made up of a bag, and so it's a
Speaker 1: flexible bag that is open on one end. Inside the
Speaker 1: bag is a grapple net. It's a net that actually
Speaker 1: has actuators on it, so we can open and close,
Speaker 1: and the bag itself can also close. So the idea
Speaker 1: is that the many be will end up capturing this
Speaker 1: simulated asteroid in a way that the larger bee family
Speaker 1: will also do. So this is how the process works,
Speaker 1: because it's pretty fascinating. I watched a whole video on
Speaker 1: this and I was really blown away by the approach.
Speaker 1: So first of all, you have to imagine that this
Speaker 1: spacecraft is approaching a small asteroid and the asteroids rotating.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, Benu rotates, so asteroid is rotating,
Speaker 1: and so you are approaching along the axis of rotation.
Speaker 1: So it's it's like you're coming directly at the end
Speaker 1: of its rotation. Uh. So you're watching it turn and
Speaker 1: let's say a clockwise motion just for the sake of
Speaker 1: imagining this. Uh. The spacecraft first matches speed with the asteroid,
Speaker 1: so they can then very slowly approach so that this
Speaker 1: bag and the net inside the bag can fit over
Speaker 1: the asteroid. The idea is that you position the spacecraft
Speaker 1: so that the net is ready to grapple with the
Speaker 1: asteroid itself. However, before that happens, the spacecraft matches the
Speaker 1: rotation of the asteroid itself, so that way from the
Speaker 1: frame of reference of the asteroid, it appears that the
Speaker 1: spacecraft isn't moving at all because they both are matching
Speaker 1: their rotation together. That this is very important because otherwise, obviously,
Speaker 1: if the spacecraft is not rotating with at the same
Speaker 1: speed as the asteroid, then if the net tries to
Speaker 1: grip is gonna twist. So by spinning the spacecraft at
Speaker 1: the same speed that the asteroid is spinning, they look
Speaker 1: still in reference to one another. Remember this is relativity.
Speaker 1: It's all dependent upon your frame of reference. Now, at
Speaker 1: that point, the spacecraft can close the net which grips
Speaker 1: on to the asteroid, and then the capture bag that's
Speaker 1: on the outside of this net also closes, and this
Speaker 1: provides a protective barrier that actually completely encapsulates the asteroid
Speaker 1: inside it. Then the thrusters on the spacecraft will fire
Speaker 1: to counteract the rotation, so it's kind of like a
Speaker 1: break You start to stop the rotation of the asteroid
Speaker 1: and use those to orient the spacecraft in relation to
Speaker 1: the sun, because the sun provides the power for the
Speaker 1: actual mining operation. Remember I mentioned it was optical mining.
Speaker 1: Well here's where that plays in. The spacecraft will have
Speaker 1: reflectors that will concentrate sunlight so it can be directed
Speaker 1: and focused on the surface of in this case, the
Speaker 1: simulated asteroid, but in future Jan's assuming this works, it
Speaker 1: will be on actual asteroids, and that light will heat
Speaker 1: up the surface of the asteroid, which will force it
Speaker 1: to release volatiles and water, and it will break up
Speaker 1: the asteroid. Actually, if you heat it up enough and
Speaker 1: that molecular structure starts to break down, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight and use
Speaker 1: it to burn wood. Collected gases will go into inflatable
Speaker 1: containers that will have passive cooling from space itself. You know,
Speaker 1: space is very cold, so essentially you have these bags
Speaker 1: that are uh the outside is open to space, and
Speaker 1: you collect all the gases and water vapor in there,
Speaker 1: and because of the incredibly cold temperatures, all that heat
Speaker 1: radiates away and you end up with bags of ice
Speaker 1: ice not just of water, but also these volatile gases.
Speaker 1: The slag, so In other words, the rocks and the
Speaker 1: other materials will go into collection bags at the base
Speaker 1: of the large capture bags, So there's going to be
Speaker 1: sort of assorting mechanism that will shoot this regular these
Speaker 1: rocks and the metals and things that are the solids
Speaker 1: from the asteroid into these collection bags. And ideally one
Speaker 1: of these B devices would be able to do this
Speaker 1: to a few different asteroids before it would need to
Speaker 1: be emptied. But the goal of the MINIB isn't to
Speaker 1: go into full operation. It's really just to show that
Speaker 1: this approach is viable and could work on a much
Speaker 1: larger scale, and that's where the bigger versions of the
Speaker 1: B family would come in. So if the MINIB proves
Speaker 1: to be effective, then we might see the larger ones.
Speaker 1: One of those is called the honey Bee that would
Speaker 1: be able to mine asteroids that measure about ten meters
Speaker 1: in size, So that's a pretty big capture bag and
Speaker 1: net that would have to be used, and like the
Speaker 1: Mini B I would capture asteroids in that same process.
Speaker 1: And this is important for lots of reasons. One is
Speaker 1: that you don't want to lose any of those resources
Speaker 1: as they get released during the optical mining process, and
Speaker 1: other is that as an asteroid breaks down, it is
Speaker 1: going to break into lots of little pieces. Capturing the
Speaker 1: asteroid means those pieces aren't just floating off and forming
Speaker 1: a cloud of space junk that could be a potential
Speaker 1: hazard for future missions. So it's very important to to
Speaker 1: contain all of that. And the company actually proposes gathering
Speaker 1: up all the unusable rubble, the stuff that can't be
Speaker 1: used for construction purposes or used for metal or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. You take all that other stuff what
Speaker 1: would just be useless slag from this mining process, and
Speaker 1: then fill up tubes with this slag. So imagine long
Speaker 1: plastic tubes, these containers that are just full of all
Speaker 1: this asteroid slag. Then they could use those tubes filled
Speaker 1: with slag as shielding for space stations or habitats. The
Speaker 1: material could act as a method to absorb harmful radiation,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty creative way to handle the waste
Speaker 1: byproduct of a mining process. I do wonder how sustainable
Speaker 1: that is in the long term, because I imagine at
Speaker 1: some point you wouldn't need to shield anything else out there, right,
Speaker 1: you would have built enough shields while you're still mining
Speaker 1: asteroids for their materials. But maybe I'm thinking too small,
Speaker 1: and maybe the future will include unimaginable expansion into space,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's more realistic considering the history of humanity
Speaker 1: on Earth. It's just hard for me to imagine right now.
Speaker 1: Next in the line of flight systems as the Queen
Speaker 1: be which would be able to capture asteroids of up
Speaker 1: to forty meters in size, and like the smaller cousins,
Speaker 1: it would follow the exact same process, you know, the
Speaker 1: general procedure of encapsulating and then optically mining asteroids would
Speaker 1: just be bigger. The thrusters on the B devices will
Speaker 1: actually use harvested water to provide thrust, so the B
Speaker 1: devices will be able to continue to operate in space
Speaker 1: as they extract resources from asteroids, and you don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about having a huge amount of fuel on board.
Speaker 1: And they actually do this in a pretty simple way.
Speaker 1: They're not using the water as rocket fuel precisely. What
Speaker 1: happens is they will funnel the water into a chamber,
Speaker 1: and that chamber will be exposed to focused sunlight, and
Speaker 1: that will heat up the water past its boiling point,
Speaker 1: which will turn it into a gas, and the gas
Speaker 1: will force its way out of a nozzle that's at
Speaker 1: the base of the chamber and that creates thrust. So
Speaker 1: the bees will only use a small amount of the
Speaker 1: water that they collect as propellant, and the rest of
Speaker 1: the water would be delivered to fuel depots in space,
Speaker 1: and that water can then be used to produce rocket fuel.
Speaker 1: If it works, it could help form the basis for
Speaker 1: deep space exploration. Rather than shooting fuel up into space
Speaker 1: from Earth, will just make it out there in space
Speaker 1: in the first place. Now, these spacecraft could lead to
Speaker 1: the development of more space mining equipment, as well as
Speaker 1: plans for the fabrication facilities that would turn slag into
Speaker 1: usable construction material and space, not to mention those fuel
Speaker 1: depots that would be needed to make use of the
Speaker 1: harvested volatiles and water. So this is just one small
Speaker 1: piece in a very large puzzle that we're going to
Speaker 1: have to construct in order to make asteroid mining a
Speaker 1: practical technology and part of an overall working strategy for
Speaker 1: deep space exploration and colonization. And the minib system is
Speaker 1: just one proposed approach. I don't mean to say it's
Speaker 1: the only way this is going to happen. It's just
Speaker 1: one proposal that got some funding. There are lots of
Speaker 1: other ones out there too, and some of them don't
Speaker 1: use optical mining. Some of them use different methods. There
Speaker 1: are several private companies exploring the possibilities and testing out
Speaker 1: different systems or subsystems with the goal of asteroid mining
Speaker 1: in mind. We're likely to see some combination of several
Speaker 1: different approaches should it turn out that it's a viable pursuit.
Speaker 1: I doubt any single way is going to become the
Speaker 1: only method we rely upon. The prospects look fairly promising,
Speaker 1: but there's still a lot of work to be done,
Speaker 1: and if it is successful, we could see new efforts
Speaker 1: to travel to more distant locations like Mars and beyond.
Speaker 1: Being able to replenish resources while out in space would
Speaker 1: mitigate one of the major challenges standing in our way,
Speaker 1: though it would be cavalier to suggest it's the biggest
Speaker 1: or most important challenge. There are lots of others to consider,
Speaker 1: such as protecting human explorers from the dangers of cosmic radiation.
Speaker 1: Plus there's that whole thing that space is always trying
Speaker 1: to kill you. It's hard to get around that. But
Speaker 1: we're making some great progress and I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: where this goes from here. I doubt I'll ever get
Speaker 1: a chance to venture into space, but it's still inspiring
Speaker 1: to think that future generations might have that option. Of course,
Speaker 1: we'll need to make sure we're making the right choices
Speaker 1: here on Earth right now to make that a future possibility.
Speaker 1: But you guys listen to tech stuff, so you're already
Speaker 1: on the right path for that kind of thing, right anyway,
Speaker 1: that wraps up this discussion of o Cyrus Rex and
Speaker 1: the Mini B system and asteroid mining. I'm sure I'll
Speaker 1: do another episode about how to handle potentially hazardous asteroids.
Speaker 1: I did an episode about that in the past as well.
Speaker 1: But you know, there are always developments that add to
Speaker 1: our understanding. Certain tactics become more likely, others become more unlikely.
Speaker 1: So I'll do a follow up episode at some point
Speaker 1: in the meantime. If any of you have any suggestions
Speaker 1: for future episodes, you can send me an email the
Speaker 1: addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com or
Speaker 1: pop and buy our website that's tech stuff podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: You're going to find an archive of all of our
Speaker 1: past episodes there, including the original asteroid mining episode. We
Speaker 1: recorded back in two thousand and twelve, as well as
Speaker 1: links to our social media presence and to our online store,
Speaker 1: where every purchase you make goes to help the show
Speaker 1: and we greatly appreciate it, and I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: again really soon. Yeah. Tech Stuff is a production of
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