This is geology B with all of us trampled.
We can learn a great deal about the bodies that populate our
solar system by looking at them with Earth or space-based.
Telescopes. This gives us images and Spectra
which can be very detailed especially when captured by
space, probes traveling close to these objects.
However, there are some things one just cannot learn without
actually having one's hands on a sample of a Celestial body and
analyzing it here on Earth. Using the battery of techniques
that it have been refined for the analysis of terrestrial
rocks. Harold C Connolly jr.
Is a professor in the department of geology at Rowan University,
he investigates the origin of the very oldest planetary
materials from, which the Earth was made, asteroids are good
place to look for such materials and to that end, he is Mission
sample. Scientists on NASA's, asteroid
sample, return mission called Osiris Rex, as well as a member
of the sample analysis. Team of the Japanese asteroid
sample return mission. Hayabusa to Harold C Conley jr.
Welcome to geology B. Well, thank you very much
Oliver. It's a pleasure and an honor to
be here. You're currently involved with
to asteroid sample, return missions, just to be clear, what
is a sample return Mission and why is it important sample?
Return missions are missions which returned extraterrestrial
material from solar system objects back to Earth.
For analysis, we have solar system objects on Earth which
land here completely, by accident of the universe as far
as we can call it that which are meteorites.
And also small dust grains are coming through the atmosphere.
But those are actually delivered to us and we don't know the
context of geologic context of necessarily of where those
materials come from. We have a vague idea such as you
know that this rock came from a mountain range but you don't
know which formation in the Arrange for example, when you
find a stone in a river. So sample, return missions are
really incredibly important for giving us the geologic context
that we don't have without spacecrafts, or in the case of
Apollo humans bringing back samples to Earth.
Could you give us a quick overview of the sample return
missions that have happened so far?
Yeah. So the sample return Mission
started back in the Cold War days in the late 60s between
USSR, and And the United States, that was the lunar program and
the Apollo program. And of course, as we all know,
USSR and United States of America weren't very good
friends back then. So that was the first samples to
be returned first by robot, which would be the lunar program
Robotics. And then, of course, humans in
the Apollo Mission and then we speed forward to the early 20th
century when we have material coming back from the coma of a
comet Stardust, we have solar wind that was collected by
mission called Genesis, which collected solar wind brought it
back. And we also have Hayabusa which
was the first mission to go to an asteroid and bring back
samples from asteroid. And the Hayabusa mission was
Japanese and Genesis and stardust were from the US.
Other higher atmosphere, sort of missions have taken place in
brought back. Cosmic dust fear rules as well,
but they're not completely off Planet.
Expeditions are Cyrus. Rex has just captured A sample
from asteroid bennu and Hayabusa. 2 is nearly back home.
Now after having grabbed a bit of the asteroid ryugu, why were
these particular asteroids chosen?
So go backwards. A little bit with the Hayabusa
Mission. The first Hayabusa Mission which
one to asteroid itokawa which spectrally is a S-Type asteroid
and it was predicted to be the same composition of what we know
as quila. Bread ordinary converts.
They'll be fine. Honours meteorites that are
similar to sedimentary rocks, but a cosmic sedimentary rocks
made up of multiple kinds of materials from different time
periods and different locations in the earliest moments of the
formation of our solar system believed to be the precursors to
the planets and speed up forward.
We wanted to get a better understanding of another kind of
chondrite that we find here on Earth which are called
carbonaceous chondrites, we don't have the geologic context
for them. We believe they come from.
Or hypothesized to come from asteroids, such as carbonaceous
ones. That we know as for instance,
bannu and Ruku. So it was deemed important to
understand basic questions of the origin of planets in the
origin of Prebiotic compounds and at the same time to study
how asteroids move to go to a near Earth, object and asteroid
which crosses the Earth's orbit at some point during its
revolution around the star. We know it's a son and
rendezvous with collect samples and bring those precious
Treasures back to Earth for study.
So that was the large-scale picture of it and there were
both chosen in the end because there were relatively close to
fly to. So the expense was more or less
within the cost cap, that could be done.
Let's talk about osiris-rex specifically.
Now what happened when it arrived at asteroid bennu in
December 2018 after a long Long two-year Journey from us.
So we had designed our spacecraft and planned our
operations and our science thinking for an object which
contain large areas or ponds as we like to call them fine.
Grain material, CM 2, mm sized material, sand, sized grains of
material and we got to the asteroid and it was anything,
but full of sand sized particles, Boulders the size of
ten story building sticking up, Boulders the size of buses and
cars and SUVs. So after a moment of panic, we
regrouped and began to study this amazing object that never
ceases to show me Wonders. That I never expected, we'd
find. So when you got that, you found,
it was very different from what you expected.
So what happened next then, so we chose you as your because it
was going to be carbonaceous, like something similar to what
we have in our Collections. And there is Is elements of that
that are true. But the most important thing for
us was collecting the sample because we're sample collection
Mission, just like Hayabusa 2. So we had to then begin to
really look in detail at the surface of the asteroid for
materials that we would be able to collect materials that we
could collect in an area. That was safe materials that we
could collect an area. We could fly the spacecraft to
and finally materials that would have hi.
Scientific value. And of course anything has high
scientific value to comes back from the asteroid at this point.
So we immediately change some of our thinking about flying a
spacecraft. Navigation, was able to get us
down to a very small Bullseye compared to what we originally
were planning to be a larger bull's-eye to touch the surface
of the asteroid. We began to look in more detail
and add extra flybys of the asteroid to home in with our
camera system. To find CM 2.
Mm sighs. Range, which is the size range.
We need to collect with the design of our collector called
Tags in which is touching go sample acquisition mechanism.
So you said two centimeters is a maximum.
It's like a little Pebble. That's right.
Yeah, 2 cm at least in a direction that it can get into
the orifice of the tag collector head, right?
It might be a little longer in one dimension, but 2 cm is the
maximum amount and for Hayabusa 2, it is 1 cm and can you
collect finer grain material, as well?
Yeah, absolutely. That's the best kind of material
that collect to it. Just like a reverse vacuum
cleaner to tag same collector, so we had tested it and tested
and tested a model. The model, the model for the
collection of material that was CM to smaller in size and we
did. Okay?
So you were talking about how the sampling site was chosen.
And there are obviously some constraints about what was
possible. You know, obviously, you want to
avoid these huge Boulders and get to a place On the surface,
where it's visible to maneuver, but you also mentioned science
value. So how do you define the science
value of a site? One of the main priorities of
the mission was to bring back a sample that is rich in volatiles
and organic compounds because we want to understand how the
materials such as water or Prebiotic compounds.
Get the liver to Earth. It's a huge scientific and if
you will philosophical issue about why does Earth have as
much water. As it has, where did that water
come from? And also, of course, life, we
want to be able to try to constrain that better by
bringing back a sample of carbonaceous material, planetary
material with geologic context kept.
So, we would look for areas of the asteroid that would have
more, what we thought would be more of these volatiles.
Then another region, this is how we planned, but as it turned
out, the volatiles are everywhere.
So we did have to really worry about that issue.
When you say volatiles you're talking about material which
melt at low temperatures including water, this locked up
inside, clay minerals and Prebiotic material is naturally
occurring, mainly organic material, which may have
contributed to the origin of life on Earth.
Naturally occurring, amino acids are an example So you actually
spent two years circling the asteroid before descending to
the surface to grab a sample and during that time then where you
taking Spectra to try and locate these volatiles.
Yeah, we're using our scientific instruments through all kinds of
exploring. So we looked at the Spectra from
about 0.5 microns to about 4.5 microns and then about 5 microns
to out to 25 plus looking at the different chemical properties of
the surface of the asteroid. Just explained these
wavelengths. Pam, the near-infrared to the
far infrared. That's right.
We also looked at the heat Distribution on the surface of
the asteroid because again we want to collect volatiles and
you want to try to make sure you collect it from an area.
That's not too hot for example, the equator perhaps.
So we were constantly looking at the nature of been doing the big
surprise was when we discovered in January of nineteen that
asteroid bennu is an active asteroid.
In other words, it is actually spewing Material off into space.
Some of it pops up Circles goes. We can see it orbit around the
asteroid for a day or two or three and then it's not there
anymore so probably fell back down to the surface of the ice
cream so that was a great and wonderful surprise.
We had actually had a campaign to search for outgassing plume
like outgassing as you might expect in comments because one
hypothesis for these asteroids is that they're potentially Dead
Calm. Omits.
So, we didn't see that. And even on the approach phase,
which normally you would expect to see that kind of activity
from a distance until we got an orbit.
And then we saw these active Outburst happening of just
particles, basically, and sometimes it's just a few of
them that pop off the surface. Do we have any idea, what's
causing those? Plumes that can be things such
as the pressures of the asteroid, as it rotates around
its own axis, which is about a little over four hours that the
material is actually Crunching itself and the pressures causing
it. It could be that these are filo
silicate minerals, meaning, sort of sheet, like, minerals, like
serpentines or for those people who may be pretty good with
plants and they pick up Vermiculite, for example, which
is a sheet silicate and expands because it has poor space that
holds water. So it may be something to do
with the interaction between the solar energy and the surface of
the asteroid that materials pumping off.
So it's a great riddle. You mentioned that some parts of
the surface might actually be too hot in the sense that they
might have driven off. Some of the volatiles, what kind
of temperatures are we talking about?
And whether some thermal surprises for you, when you got
that, not really, as far as the thermal surprises.
Go, so we work in K on the on the asteroid.
So it's something up to 380, 400 Kelvin.
So subtract, 273 from them, so it gets a little hard and we
have a requirement to maintain the temperature of the sample
below, 70, What the greatest Hope was that are collecting
mechanisms designed actually to go into the surface of the
asteroid and penetrate a little bit, and collect material from
the subsurface, not just the surface.
And of course, that's exactly what happened.
We sunk in about 48 centimeters, so we probably collected
material that's quite cool. And maybe hasn't seen anything
on the surface for a very long time.
If at all how much material was in fact connected, so, I
collector, Can collect up to two kilograms of material.
We basically stuffed it full, probably two plus and I say two
plus because the collector also is not just a bulk collector
like a reverse vacuum cleaner. But there are little pads
contact pads, we call them on the surface of the actual
collector that are slightly indented into the head.
And they're kind of a steel wool material that picked up
particles. And one of the first things we
did to confirm, we had Sam For was articulate the 3-meter arm
at the elbow joint and bring it back to the camera.
So that the head was The Collector.
Head was exposed to the cameras View and have the sunlight
hitting that simple and much to our surprise and at some level
did light. And also slightly bit of panic.
We were losing grains out of the collector head.
It was so stuff that some particles actually were keeping
what appears to be our mylar flap that close.
Has the actual inside collector unit from Material escaping.
It's actually keeping it open because the particles were quite
large. So, the pie NASA headquarters
Lockheed Martin, all the interested parties got together
when over all the data and made a decision that the next step,
which would have been to confirm the mass by doing a simple
physics. Experiment of actually,
extending the arm back out or keeping the arm out rather and
spinning the spacecraft to see how the In changed with the mass
we collected. When we can give us an estimate
of the amount of material we collected, we decided not to do
that and to Stow the sample as quickly as possible.
So that we wouldn't lose any more particles because our
estimates was, we were losing quite a bit of particles
material as we move the arm / movement.
So that one absolutely smoothly the sample collector head was
put right into the sample. Return capsule.
The clients did their job. Holding it down, we then Remove
the bolt, that holds the tags and head to the actual arm of
the unit and also cut the tube that had the nitrogen gas fire
through. And both we were done one week
ahead of time. Okay?
So the spacecraft begins its journey home in March of next
year and all being well, when it arrives on September 24 2023, it
will release its capsule containing the new samples,
which will perish Down in the dry lake beds of Utah.
What happens next? Well, as we all watch a gently
descent to the surface of the Utah desert, we clap.
Very loudly and then quickly get in our vehicles and go recover
that capsule. We have a couple of priority
issues. We have to do, we have to get
into a nitrogen atmosphere in the field.
So we have a small sort of filled curation camps, that will
be set up. We put that sample return
capsule into we then packaged correctly.
Locally with the curators and colleagues from Lockheed Martin
and NASA will then ship it to Ellington Air.
Force Base in Houston, Texas outside of Johnson Space Center
and then it gets brought to the Johnson Space Center to the area
once known as a lunar receiving laboratory.
They Astro. Materials curation facility
where it will be opened up in a nitrogen environment in the
curation facility and then we take lots of pictures and smile.
So as far as I know that curation Johnson space flight
center is sterile, is that to make sure the samples aren't
contaminated by earth, materials, or are we also
protecting ourselves from something potentially harmful on
the asteroid know. The main purpose is to protect
the sample from getting contaminated from any, human
input or any terrestrial input into that simple.
Asteroids, do not contain anything that's a threat to
human life and that we learned in part from the Apollo,
Emissions who brought samples back.
And lots of research was done on the Apollo samples, which showed
that they've been sitting on the surface of the Moon for four and
a half billion years, they've been cooked radiated.
So there is nothing there that is of any harm so what kinds of
analysis will be performed on these samples.
That's something I've been waiting so far, 12 years of my
life. So the sample will be broken
down into two major categories, the analysis Daleks and the in
organic analysis and in the case of your gannets will go through
the usual steps that one does would measuring organic
materials. They'll be some dissolution of
the return material to be some dissolving of it and we'll be
looking for soluble and insoluble, Organics amino acids,
sugars Etc. And then the in organic, we will
be looking at the petrology to petrography of the rock.
What is the rock? What does it look like?
How do the minerals arrange themselves and then what Are the
minerals compositions. What is the structure of the
overall mineralogy that is present in either the structural
components of this material, or the rocks in general?
We expect that they'll be several different types of
rocks, what we call the thala jeez, and we'll be looking for
Elemental, both major minor Trace elements, the isotopic
composition stable and radiogenic the absolute age of
materials, or relative age of materials, whether or not Is a
material, chondritic material, we have in our collection or
whether it's something we've never seen before contains
components, we've never seen before.
It's going to be really fun. And we have two years to do
that. And meanwhile, the curation
facility in the first six months, we'll be developing a
catalog of the materials course, mediums and fine particles that
will be released. So that scientists around the
world can request samples of osiris-rex to study and our
sample analysis routine is actually set up in a way that is
for a mission of first in that we have a whole series of
hypotheses that we will be testing by analyzing the sample
to uncover and constrain the entire history of asteroid bennu
from material. That was part of a molecular
cloud, before the solar system was formed to material that
formed in the disc as planets were being made to finally
material. That would be sitting on the
surface. And how long?
Some sitting on the surface since the actual object bannu
was formed. Are there any specific questions
that you're particularly interested in answering as a
result of all these analysis that you'll be performing?
That would love to see chondrules inside of this
material, which are mm to sub millimeter size.
Igneous, fear is that were melted in the early solar system
that we don't really understand how they were mounted.
And I would like to also, see the first rocks that actually
give us the a Age of the solar system.
I would like to see that material in this return sample
and new kinds of what we call calcium-rich aluminum Rich
inclusions and those are two classes of objects.
Have spent my career working on and I can never get enough of
them. They're beautiful.
So these are some of the very, very earliest materials of the
solar system. Is that why you're particularly
interested in them? That's right.
Some of my colleagues work on material.
That's actually older which are pre-solar grains.
I enjoy that as well, but I'm Petrology stand, them igneous
petrology. So rocks have been melted or my
forte. I know it's a similar weird
environment to form, sedimentary rocks.
But do you think you'll see some sedimentary lithology?
She's in the samples as well? We seem to be able to see flat
particles that are ejected off the surface, some kind of
foliation, or layering in some of the rocks on the surface, The
Boulders and potentially, even some of the material that
escaped the The sample collection head when we moved
it. So we don't really understand
how meteorites were lithified. We don't understand how they
were turned into rocks, and we're hoping that we will get a
better idea of that process from the return samples.
So I guess this is a kind of oxymoron, but do you actually
expect to see some surprises when you get your hands on those
samples? First of all, I would like to
see a different population of chondrules that we don't have
represented very well or Certainly represented at a very
small level, that would be something that would really
excite me. And I'd like to see that the
mythologies we return. While the dominant one would be
carbonaceous contract, like there would be other material
there that before we got to the asteroid, we probably never
would have predicted that we would have found them as a
mixture with carbonaceous material and we know that
there's most likely exoticness material, what spectroscopy is
called, luxurious material on the surface.
Surface of been do, which appears to be material that
become from Vesta. So that indicates that in the
Collision stage while bennu's parent body was still in the
asteroid belt that it got banged by something that wasn't
carbonaceous it collided and catastrophically perhaps with
something that was differentiated or melted and
there may be more cycles of collisions occurred.
We know this sir just explain you mentioned.
There might be something that came from Vest has the largest
known asteroid, is that right? Correct.
Vesta and Ceres are two large asteroid Vesta is a largest
differentiated largest, asteroid period and series is a large
carbonaceous Lancaster which is actually potentially similar to
both through goo and venu. And they might get the as a
result of some kind of Shuffling from collisions during the
process of formation of the news that the thought right?
During the formation of the new during the what we call
catastrophic disruption that broke the parent body of part in
produced by a new and potentially cousins of bennu or
Raghu that are out there in the solar system, how that happened
is potentially random. But also may be related to the
migration of giant planets at some point in the early solar
system or much later on it's difficult to constrain but we're
hoping with the or our expectation, is that with the
samples that we return, we can constrain some of that timeframe
of catastrophic disruption for my last question.
I'd like you to imagine that you are in charge of NASA's
scientific space mission budget. What would you use it for the
solar system is a big place when the areas that I think would be
really important to explore our objects that are known as
centering objects or Kuiper Belt objects.
That are these cold hypothesized to be truly primordial,
volatile, rich with lots of ice and rock in them.
That are out in the outer solar system, even so much as to go to
some of the rocky moons of the Jovian planets and bring back
samples to study. I think would be really
Illuminating for many scientific reasons, Harold, C Conley jr.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it very much.
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