1
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:07,000
This is geology B with all of us
trampled. 

2
00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:11,900
We can learn a great deal about 
the bodies that populate our 

3
00:00:11,900 --> 00:00:15,700
solar system by looking at them 
with Earth or space-based. 

4
00:00:15,700 --> 00:00:19,000
Telescopes. 
This gives us images and Spectra

5
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,600
which can be very detailed 
especially when captured by 

6
00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,100
space, probes traveling close to
these objects. 

7
00:00:25,100 --> 00:00:30,200
However, there are some things 
one just cannot learn without 

8
00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:34,600
actually having one's hands on a
sample of a Celestial body and 

9
00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,300
analyzing it here on Earth. 
Using the battery of techniques 

10
00:00:38,300 --> 00:00:41,200
that it have been refined for 
the analysis of terrestrial 

11
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,900
rocks. 
Harold C Connolly jr. 

12
00:00:44,900 --> 00:00:48,800
Is a professor in the department
of geology at Rowan University, 

13
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,800
he investigates the origin of 
the very oldest planetary 

14
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:56,800
materials from, which the Earth 
was made, asteroids are good 

15
00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:01,000
place to look for such materials
and to that end, he is Mission 

16
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,900
sample. 
Scientists on NASA's, asteroid 

17
00:01:03,900 --> 00:01:07,800
sample, return mission called 
Osiris Rex, as well as a member 

18
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:11,500
of the sample analysis. 
Team of the Japanese asteroid 

19
00:01:11,500 --> 00:01:16,400
sample return mission. 
Hayabusa to Harold C Conley jr. 

20
00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,300
Welcome to geology B. 
Well, thank you very much 

21
00:01:19,300 --> 00:01:20,700
Oliver. 
It's a pleasure and an honor to 

22
00:01:20,700 --> 00:01:22,800
be here. 
You're currently involved with 

23
00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:27,500
to asteroid sample, return 
missions, just to be clear, what

24
00:01:27,500 --> 00:01:32,000
is a sample return Mission and 
why is it important sample? 

25
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,600
Return missions are missions 
which returned extraterrestrial 

26
00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:42,600
material from solar system 
objects back to Earth. 

27
00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:46,800
For analysis, we have solar 
system objects on Earth which 

28
00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:50,700
land here completely, by 
accident of the universe as far 

29
00:01:50,700 --> 00:01:53,600
as we can call it that which are
meteorites. 

30
00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,200
And also small dust grains are 
coming through the atmosphere. 

31
00:01:57,700 --> 00:02:01,800
But those are actually delivered
to us and we don't know the 

32
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,200
context of geologic context of 
necessarily of where those 

33
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:08,600
materials come from. 
We have a vague idea such as you

34
00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,200
know that this rock came from a 
mountain range but you don't 

35
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,100
know which formation in the 
Arrange for example, when you 

36
00:02:14,100 --> 00:02:18,100
find a stone in a river. 
So sample, return missions are 

37
00:02:18,700 --> 00:02:21,900
really incredibly important for 
giving us the geologic context 

38
00:02:21,900 --> 00:02:25,800
that we don't have without 
spacecrafts, or in the case of 

39
00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:29,000
Apollo humans bringing back 
samples to Earth. 

40
00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:32,600
Could you give us a quick 
overview of the sample return 

41
00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:34,300
missions that have happened so 
far? 

42
00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:36,100
Yeah. 
So the sample return Mission 

43
00:02:36,100 --> 00:02:40,800
started back in the Cold War 
days in the late 60s between 

44
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:45,900
USSR, and And the United States,
that was the lunar program and 

45
00:02:45,900 --> 00:02:48,300
the Apollo program. 
And of course, as we all know, 

46
00:02:48,300 --> 00:02:50,800
USSR and United States of 
America weren't very good 

47
00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,000
friends back then. 
So that was the first samples to

48
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,200
be returned first by robot, 
which would be the lunar program

49
00:02:58,200 --> 00:02:59,900
Robotics. 
And then, of course, humans in 

50
00:02:59,908 --> 00:03:04,900
the Apollo Mission and then we 
speed forward to the early 20th 

51
00:03:04,900 --> 00:03:07,800
century when we have material 
coming back from the coma of a 

52
00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:12,000
comet Stardust, we have solar 
wind that was collected by 

53
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,000
mission called Genesis, which 
collected solar wind brought it 

54
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,600
back. 
And we also have Hayabusa which 

55
00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:22,200
was the first mission to go to 
an asteroid and bring back 

56
00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,100
samples from asteroid. 
And the Hayabusa mission was 

57
00:03:25,100 --> 00:03:30,100
Japanese and Genesis and 
stardust were from the US. 

58
00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,700
Other higher atmosphere, sort of
missions have taken place in 

59
00:03:33,700 --> 00:03:36,100
brought back. 
Cosmic dust fear rules as well, 

60
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,500
but they're not completely off 
Planet. 

61
00:03:38,500 --> 00:03:43,400
Expeditions are Cyrus. 
Rex has just captured A sample 

62
00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:48,800
from asteroid bennu and 
Hayabusa. 2 is nearly back home.

63
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,900
Now after having grabbed a bit 
of the asteroid ryugu, why were 

64
00:03:52,900 --> 00:03:54,900
these particular asteroids 
chosen? 

65
00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:58,300
So go backwards. 
A little bit with the Hayabusa 

66
00:03:58,300 --> 00:04:00,100
Mission. 
The first Hayabusa Mission which

67
00:04:00,100 --> 00:04:04,900
one to asteroid itokawa which 
spectrally is a S-Type asteroid 

68
00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:10,200
and it was predicted to be the 
same composition of what we know

69
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:12,200
as quila. 
Bread ordinary converts. 

70
00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,400
They'll be fine. 
Honours meteorites that are 

71
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,100
similar to sedimentary rocks, 
but a cosmic sedimentary rocks 

72
00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:21,200
made up of multiple kinds of 
materials from different time 

73
00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,500
periods and different locations 
in the earliest moments of the 

74
00:04:25,500 --> 00:04:28,700
formation of our solar system 
believed to be the precursors to

75
00:04:28,700 --> 00:04:32,100
the planets and speed up 
forward. 

76
00:04:32,100 --> 00:04:35,400
We wanted to get a better 
understanding of another kind of

77
00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:37,600
chondrite that we find here on 
Earth which are called 

78
00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:41,000
carbonaceous chondrites, we 
don't have the geologic context 

79
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:42,600
for them. 
We believe they come from. 

80
00:04:42,700 --> 00:04:46,700
Or hypothesized to come from 
asteroids, such as carbonaceous 

81
00:04:46,700 --> 00:04:48,700
ones. 
That we know as for instance, 

82
00:04:48,700 --> 00:04:53,500
bannu and Ruku. 
So it was deemed important to 

83
00:04:53,500 --> 00:04:57,400
understand basic questions of 
the origin of planets in the 

84
00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:01,800
origin of Prebiotic compounds 
and at the same time to study 

85
00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:06,700
how asteroids move to go to a 
near Earth, object and asteroid 

86
00:05:06,700 --> 00:05:10,900
which crosses the Earth's orbit 
at some point during its 

87
00:05:10,900 --> 00:05:15,200
revolution around the star. 
We know it's a son and 

88
00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,100
rendezvous with collect samples 
and bring those precious 

89
00:05:18,100 --> 00:05:20,400
Treasures back to Earth for 
study. 

90
00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,400
So that was the large-scale 
picture of it and there were 

91
00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:27,000
both chosen in the end because 
there were relatively close to 

92
00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,200
fly to. 
So the expense was more or less 

93
00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:31,900
within the cost cap, that could 
be done. 

94
00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,200
Let's talk about osiris-rex 
specifically. 

95
00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:39,600
Now what happened when it 
arrived at asteroid bennu in 

96
00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:44,700
December 2018 after a long Long 
two-year Journey from us. 

97
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:47,900
So we had designed our 
spacecraft and planned our 

98
00:05:48,100 --> 00:05:52,500
operations and our science 
thinking for an object which 

99
00:05:52,500 --> 00:05:57,100
contain large areas or ponds as 
we like to call them fine. 

100
00:05:57,100 --> 00:06:01,800
Grain material, CM 2, mm sized 
material, sand, sized grains of 

101
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:06,300
material and we got to the 
asteroid and it was anything, 

102
00:06:06,300 --> 00:06:10,400
but full of sand sized 
particles, Boulders the size of 

103
00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,700
ten story building sticking up, 
Boulders the size of buses and 

104
00:06:14,700 --> 00:06:19,600
cars and SUVs. 
So after a moment of panic, we 

105
00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,000
regrouped and began to study 
this amazing object that never 

106
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,400
ceases to show me Wonders. 
That I never expected, we'd 

107
00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,600
find. 
So when you got that, you found,

108
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,300
it was very different from what 
you expected. 

109
00:06:33,500 --> 00:06:37,700
So what happened next then, so 
we chose you as your because it 

110
00:06:37,700 --> 00:06:40,400
was going to be carbonaceous, 
like something similar to what 

111
00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:43,500
we have in our Collections. 
And there is Is elements of that

112
00:06:43,500 --> 00:06:46,500
that are true. 
But the most important thing for

113
00:06:46,500 --> 00:06:51,000
us was collecting the sample 
because we're sample collection 

114
00:06:51,300 --> 00:06:55,400
Mission, just like Hayabusa 2. 
So we had to then begin to 

115
00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:59,600
really look in detail at the 
surface of the asteroid for 

116
00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:04,000
materials that we would be able 
to collect materials that we 

117
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:07,200
could collect in an area. 
That was safe materials that we 

118
00:07:07,207 --> 00:07:10,100
could collect an area. 
We could fly the spacecraft to 

119
00:07:10,500 --> 00:07:12,500
and finally materials that would
have hi. 

120
00:07:12,700 --> 00:07:16,500
Scientific value. 
And of course anything has high 

121
00:07:16,500 --> 00:07:19,100
scientific value to comes back 
from the asteroid at this point.

122
00:07:19,100 --> 00:07:22,500
So we immediately change some of
our thinking about flying a 

123
00:07:22,500 --> 00:07:25,400
spacecraft. 
Navigation, was able to get us 

124
00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:28,400
down to a very small Bullseye 
compared to what we originally 

125
00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,300
were planning to be a larger 
bull's-eye to touch the surface 

126
00:07:31,300 --> 00:07:34,700
of the asteroid. 
We began to look in more detail 

127
00:07:34,700 --> 00:07:39,200
and add extra flybys of the 
asteroid to home in with our 

128
00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,600
camera system. 
To find CM 2. 

129
00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,800
Mm sighs. 
Range, which is the size range. 

130
00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,700
We need to collect with the 
design of our collector called 

131
00:07:46,700 --> 00:07:50,100
Tags in which is touching go 
sample acquisition mechanism. 

132
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:53,100
So you said two centimeters is a
maximum. 

133
00:07:53,100 --> 00:07:55,500
It's like a little Pebble. 
That's right. 

134
00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:58,700
Yeah, 2 cm at least in a 
direction that it can get into 

135
00:07:58,700 --> 00:08:01,900
the orifice of the tag collector
head, right? 

136
00:08:01,900 --> 00:08:05,200
It might be a little longer in 
one dimension, but 2 cm is the 

137
00:08:05,207 --> 00:08:09,600
maximum amount and for Hayabusa 
2, it is 1 cm and can you 

138
00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:11,800
collect finer grain material, as
well? 

139
00:08:12,500 --> 00:08:14,900
Yeah, absolutely. 
That's the best kind of material

140
00:08:14,900 --> 00:08:17,300
that collect to it. 
Just like a reverse vacuum 

141
00:08:17,300 --> 00:08:21,600
cleaner to tag same collector, 
so we had tested it and tested 

142
00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,600
and tested a model. 
The model, the model for the 

143
00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:29,900
collection of material that was 
CM to smaller in size and we 

144
00:08:29,900 --> 00:08:31,600
did. 
Okay? 

145
00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,900
So you were talking about how 
the sampling site was chosen. 

146
00:08:34,900 --> 00:08:37,900
And there are obviously some 
constraints about what was 

147
00:08:37,900 --> 00:08:39,400
possible. 
You know, obviously, you want to

148
00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,900
avoid these huge Boulders and 
get to a place On the surface, 

149
00:08:42,900 --> 00:08:46,200
where it's visible to maneuver, 
but you also mentioned science 

150
00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:48,300
value. 
So how do you define the science

151
00:08:48,300 --> 00:08:51,300
value of a site? 
One of the main priorities of 

152
00:08:51,300 --> 00:08:54,800
the mission was to bring back a 
sample that is rich in volatiles

153
00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:59,100
and organic compounds because we
want to understand how the 

154
00:08:59,300 --> 00:09:03,500
materials such as water or 
Prebiotic compounds. 

155
00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:07,700
Get the liver to Earth. 
It's a huge scientific and if 

156
00:09:07,700 --> 00:09:11,500
you will philosophical issue 
about why does Earth have as 

157
00:09:11,500 --> 00:09:14,100
much water. 
As it has, where did that water 

158
00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:18,600
come from? 
And also, of course, life, we 

159
00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:21,100
want to be able to try to 
constrain that better by 

160
00:09:21,100 --> 00:09:25,600
bringing back a sample of 
carbonaceous material, planetary

161
00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,100
material with geologic context 
kept. 

162
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,600
So, we would look for areas of 
the asteroid that would have 

163
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,600
more, what we thought would be 
more of these volatiles. 

164
00:09:35,100 --> 00:09:38,300
Then another region, this is how
we planned, but as it turned 

165
00:09:38,300 --> 00:09:40,600
out, the volatiles are 
everywhere. 

166
00:09:41,300 --> 00:09:44,000
So we did have to really worry 
about that issue. 

167
00:09:44,300 --> 00:09:47,600
When you say volatiles you're 
talking about material which 

168
00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:51,700
melt at low temperatures 
including water, this locked up 

169
00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:56,800
inside, clay minerals and 
Prebiotic material is naturally 

170
00:09:56,800 --> 00:09:59,900
occurring, mainly organic 
material, which may have 

171
00:09:59,900 --> 00:10:02,100
contributed to the origin of 
life on Earth. 

172
00:10:02,300 --> 00:10:07,600
Naturally occurring, amino acids
are an example So you actually 

173
00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:10,900
spent two years circling the 
asteroid before descending to 

174
00:10:10,900 --> 00:10:16,000
the surface to grab a sample and
during that time then where you 

175
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,000
taking Spectra to try and locate
these volatiles. 

176
00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:22,300
Yeah, we're using our scientific
instruments through all kinds of

177
00:10:22,300 --> 00:10:25,100
exploring. 
So we looked at the Spectra from

178
00:10:25,100 --> 00:10:30,100
about 0.5 microns to about 4.5 
microns and then about 5 microns

179
00:10:30,100 --> 00:10:34,600
to out to 25 plus looking at the
different chemical properties of

180
00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,000
the surface of the asteroid. 
Just explained these 

181
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,500
wavelengths. 
Pam, the near-infrared to the 

182
00:10:41,500 --> 00:10:43,300
far infrared. 
That's right. 

183
00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:46,500
We also looked at the heat 
Distribution on the surface of 

184
00:10:46,500 --> 00:10:49,300
the asteroid because again we 
want to collect volatiles and 

185
00:10:49,300 --> 00:10:51,400
you want to try to make sure you
collect it from an area. 

186
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,100
That's not too hot for example, 
the equator perhaps. 

187
00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:59,300
So we were constantly looking at
the nature of been doing the big

188
00:10:59,300 --> 00:11:03,700
surprise was when we discovered 
in January of nineteen that 

189
00:11:03,700 --> 00:11:06,200
asteroid bennu is an active 
asteroid. 

190
00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:10,900
In other words, it is actually 
spewing Material off into space.

191
00:11:10,900 --> 00:11:15,100
Some of it pops up Circles goes.
We can see it orbit around the 

192
00:11:15,500 --> 00:11:18,500
asteroid for a day or two or 
three and then it's not there 

193
00:11:18,500 --> 00:11:21,300
anymore so probably fell back 
down to the surface of the ice 

194
00:11:21,300 --> 00:11:24,500
cream so that was a great and 
wonderful surprise. 

195
00:11:24,500 --> 00:11:28,300
We had actually had a campaign 
to search for outgassing plume 

196
00:11:28,300 --> 00:11:32,000
like outgassing as you might 
expect in comments because one 

197
00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:36,200
hypothesis for these asteroids 
is that they're potentially Dead

198
00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:36,900
Calm. 
Omits. 

199
00:11:37,100 --> 00:11:40,300
So, we didn't see that. 
And even on the approach phase, 

200
00:11:40,300 --> 00:11:42,800
which normally you would expect 
to see that kind of activity 

201
00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,400
from a distance until we got an 
orbit. 

202
00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:49,300
And then we saw these active 
Outburst happening of just 

203
00:11:49,300 --> 00:11:51,900
particles, basically, and 
sometimes it's just a few of 

204
00:11:51,900 --> 00:11:55,100
them that pop off the surface. 
Do we have any idea, what's 

205
00:11:55,100 --> 00:11:58,100
causing those? 
Plumes that can be things such 

206
00:11:58,100 --> 00:12:01,400
as the pressures of the 
asteroid, as it rotates around 

207
00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:05,700
its own axis, which is about a 
little over four hours that the 

208
00:12:05,700 --> 00:12:08,600
material is actually Crunching 
itself and the pressures causing

209
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,900
it. 
It could be that these are filo 

210
00:12:10,900 --> 00:12:14,600
silicate minerals, meaning, sort
of sheet, like, minerals, like 

211
00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:18,400
serpentines or for those people 
who may be pretty good with 

212
00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:21,200
plants and they pick up 
Vermiculite, for example, which 

213
00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:25,200
is a sheet silicate and expands 
because it has poor space that 

214
00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:27,400
holds water. 
So it may be something to do 

215
00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:31,500
with the interaction between the
solar energy and the surface of 

216
00:12:31,500 --> 00:12:34,300
the asteroid that materials 
pumping off. 

217
00:12:34,300 --> 00:12:38,200
So it's a great riddle. 
You mentioned that some parts of

218
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:41,100
the surface might actually be 
too hot in the sense that they 

219
00:12:41,100 --> 00:12:44,200
might have driven off. 
Some of the volatiles, what kind

220
00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:45,600
of temperatures are we talking 
about? 

221
00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:49,100
And whether some thermal 
surprises for you, when you got 

222
00:12:49,100 --> 00:12:51,800
that, not really, as far as the 
thermal surprises. 

223
00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,100
Go, so we work in K on the on 
the asteroid. 

224
00:12:54,100 --> 00:12:57,600
So it's something up to 380, 400
Kelvin. 

225
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:02,500
So subtract, 273 from them, so 
it gets a little hard and we 

226
00:13:02,500 --> 00:13:05,400
have a requirement to maintain 
the temperature of the sample 

227
00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:10,600
below, 70, What the greatest 
Hope was that are collecting 

228
00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:14,100
mechanisms designed actually to 
go into the surface of the 

229
00:13:14,100 --> 00:13:16,300
asteroid and penetrate a little 
bit, and collect material from 

230
00:13:16,300 --> 00:13:18,800
the subsurface, not just the 
surface. 

231
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:21,400
And of course, that's exactly 
what happened. 

232
00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:25,400
We sunk in about 48 centimeters,
so we probably collected 

233
00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:29,400
material that's quite cool. 
And maybe hasn't seen anything 

234
00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:31,300
on the surface for a very long 
time. 

235
00:13:31,300 --> 00:13:35,600
If at all how much material was 
in fact connected, so, I 

236
00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,800
collector, Can collect up to two
kilograms of material. 

237
00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:43,200
We basically stuffed it full, 
probably two plus and I say two 

238
00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,500
plus because the collector also 
is not just a bulk collector 

239
00:13:47,500 --> 00:13:50,800
like a reverse vacuum cleaner. 
But there are little pads 

240
00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:53,800
contact pads, we call them on 
the surface of the actual 

241
00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:57,500
collector that are slightly 
indented into the head. 

242
00:13:57,500 --> 00:14:00,500
And they're kind of a steel wool
material that picked up 

243
00:14:00,500 --> 00:14:04,000
particles. 
And one of the first things we 

244
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:10,000
did to confirm, we had Sam For 
was articulate the 3-meter arm 

245
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,700
at the elbow joint and bring it 
back to the camera. 

246
00:14:12,700 --> 00:14:14,600
So that the head was The 
Collector. 

247
00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:19,400
Head was exposed to the cameras 
View and have the sunlight 

248
00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:23,800
hitting that simple and much to 
our surprise and at some level 

249
00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:26,200
did light. 
And also slightly bit of panic. 

250
00:14:26,300 --> 00:14:30,200
We were losing grains out of the
collector head. 

251
00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:33,500
It was so stuff that some 
particles actually were keeping 

252
00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:36,400
what appears to be our mylar 
flap that close. 

253
00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:42,100
Has the actual inside collector 
unit from Material escaping. 

254
00:14:42,100 --> 00:14:44,500
It's actually keeping it open 
because the particles were quite

255
00:14:44,500 --> 00:14:48,000
large. 
So, the pie NASA headquarters 

256
00:14:48,500 --> 00:14:51,400
Lockheed Martin, all the 
interested parties got together 

257
00:14:51,700 --> 00:14:55,400
when over all the data and made 
a decision that the next step, 

258
00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:58,700
which would have been to confirm
the mass by doing a simple 

259
00:14:58,700 --> 00:15:00,400
physics. 
Experiment of actually, 

260
00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:04,100
extending the arm back out or 
keeping the arm out rather and 

261
00:15:04,100 --> 00:15:08,500
spinning the spacecraft to see 
how the In changed with the mass

262
00:15:08,500 --> 00:15:11,600
we collected. 
When we can give us an estimate 

263
00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:14,200
of the amount of material we 
collected, we decided not to do 

264
00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:17,700
that and to Stow the sample as 
quickly as possible. 

265
00:15:17,700 --> 00:15:20,700
So that we wouldn't lose any 
more particles because our 

266
00:15:20,700 --> 00:15:23,400
estimates was, we were losing 
quite a bit of particles 

267
00:15:23,500 --> 00:15:26,700
material as we move the arm / 
movement. 

268
00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:30,600
So that one absolutely smoothly 
the sample collector head was 

269
00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:33,000
put right into the sample. 
Return capsule. 

270
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,800
The clients did their job. 
Holding it down, we then Remove 

271
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:41,500
the bolt, that holds the tags 
and head to the actual arm of 

272
00:15:41,500 --> 00:15:45,800
the unit and also cut the tube 
that had the nitrogen gas fire 

273
00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:47,900
through. 
And both we were done one week 

274
00:15:47,900 --> 00:15:49,700
ahead of time. 
Okay? 

275
00:15:49,700 --> 00:15:54,500
So the spacecraft begins its 
journey home in March of next 

276
00:15:54,500 --> 00:16:01,700
year and all being well, when it
arrives on September 24 2023, it

277
00:16:01,700 --> 00:16:05,100
will release its capsule 
containing the new samples, 

278
00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:09,500
which will perish Down in the 
dry lake beds of Utah. 

279
00:16:10,100 --> 00:16:13,200
What happens next? 
Well, as we all watch a gently 

280
00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,800
descent to the surface of the 
Utah desert, we clap. 

281
00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:20,600
Very loudly and then quickly get
in our vehicles and go recover 

282
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:24,100
that capsule. 
We have a couple of priority 

283
00:16:24,100 --> 00:16:25,700
issues. 
We have to do, we have to get 

284
00:16:25,700 --> 00:16:28,200
into a nitrogen atmosphere in 
the field. 

285
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,400
So we have a small sort of 
filled curation camps, that will

286
00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:33,700
be set up. 
We put that sample return 

287
00:16:33,700 --> 00:16:36,400
capsule into we then packaged 
correctly. 

288
00:16:36,500 --> 00:16:39,600
Locally with the curators and 
colleagues from Lockheed Martin 

289
00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:43,500
and NASA will then ship it to 
Ellington Air. 

290
00:16:43,500 --> 00:16:46,900
Force Base in Houston, Texas 
outside of Johnson Space Center 

291
00:16:47,500 --> 00:16:52,000
and then it gets brought to the 
Johnson Space Center to the area

292
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:53,900
once known as a lunar receiving 
laboratory. 

293
00:16:53,900 --> 00:16:56,000
They Astro. 
Materials curation facility 

294
00:16:56,100 --> 00:17:00,100
where it will be opened up in a 
nitrogen environment in the 

295
00:17:00,100 --> 00:17:03,600
curation facility and then we 
take lots of pictures and smile.

296
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,900
So as far as I know that 
curation Johnson space flight 

297
00:17:07,900 --> 00:17:12,200
center is sterile, is that to 
make sure the samples aren't 

298
00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,300
contaminated by earth, 
materials, or are we also 

299
00:17:15,300 --> 00:17:18,800
protecting ourselves from 
something potentially harmful on

300
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,599
the asteroid know. 
The main purpose is to protect 

301
00:17:22,599 --> 00:17:26,400
the sample from getting 
contaminated from any, human 

302
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,400
input or any terrestrial input 
into that simple. 

303
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,700
Asteroids, do not contain 
anything that's a threat to 

304
00:17:33,700 --> 00:17:36,300
human life and that we learned 
in part from the Apollo, 

305
00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:38,400
Emissions who brought samples 
back. 

306
00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:42,300
And lots of research was done on
the Apollo samples, which showed

307
00:17:42,300 --> 00:17:45,000
that they've been sitting on the
surface of the Moon for four and

308
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:48,700
a half billion years, they've 
been cooked radiated. 

309
00:17:48,700 --> 00:17:54,600
So there is nothing there that 
is of any harm so what kinds of 

310
00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:58,000
analysis will be performed on 
these samples. 

311
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,600
That's something I've been 
waiting so far, 12 years of my 

312
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:03,800
life. 
So the sample will be broken 

313
00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:07,800
down into two major categories, 
the analysis Daleks and the in 

314
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:11,900
organic analysis and in the case
of your gannets will go through 

315
00:18:11,900 --> 00:18:15,100
the usual steps that one does 
would measuring organic 

316
00:18:15,100 --> 00:18:17,400
materials. 
They'll be some dissolution of 

317
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,700
the return material to be some 
dissolving of it and we'll be 

318
00:18:20,700 --> 00:18:24,000
looking for soluble and 
insoluble, Organics amino acids,

319
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,500
sugars Etc. 
And then the in organic, we will

320
00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:30,500
be looking at the petrology to 
petrography of the rock. 

321
00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:32,600
What is the rock? 
What does it look like? 

322
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:36,700
How do the minerals arrange 
themselves and then what Are the

323
00:18:36,700 --> 00:18:40,300
minerals compositions. 
What is the structure of the 

324
00:18:40,300 --> 00:18:45,400
overall mineralogy that is 
present in either the structural

325
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,500
components of this material, or 
the rocks in general? 

326
00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:51,300
We expect that they'll be 
several different types of 

327
00:18:51,300 --> 00:18:55,200
rocks, what we call the thala 
jeez, and we'll be looking for 

328
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:59,800
Elemental, both major minor 
Trace elements, the isotopic 

329
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:03,000
composition stable and 
radiogenic the absolute age of 

330
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,800
materials, or relative age of 
materials, whether or not Is a 

331
00:19:08,500 --> 00:19:11,500
material, chondritic material, 
we have in our collection or 

332
00:19:11,500 --> 00:19:14,200
whether it's something we've 
never seen before contains 

333
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:16,000
components, we've never seen 
before. 

334
00:19:16,500 --> 00:19:18,700
It's going to be really fun. 
And we have two years to do 

335
00:19:18,700 --> 00:19:21,400
that. 
And meanwhile, the curation 

336
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,400
facility in the first six 
months, we'll be developing a 

337
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:29,100
catalog of the materials course,
mediums and fine particles that 

338
00:19:29,100 --> 00:19:31,900
will be released. 
So that scientists around the 

339
00:19:31,900 --> 00:19:37,000
world can request samples of 
osiris-rex to study and our 

340
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,400
sample analysis routine is 
actually set up in a way that is

341
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:45,500
for a mission of first in that 
we have a whole series of 

342
00:19:45,500 --> 00:19:49,400
hypotheses that we will be 
testing by analyzing the sample 

343
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:54,500
to uncover and constrain the 
entire history of asteroid bennu

344
00:19:54,500 --> 00:19:57,200
from material. 
That was part of a molecular 

345
00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,700
cloud, before the solar system 
was formed to material that 

346
00:19:59,700 --> 00:20:03,300
formed in the disc as planets 
were being made to finally 

347
00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:05,100
material. 
That would be sitting on the 

348
00:20:05,100 --> 00:20:06,300
surface. 
And how long? 

349
00:20:06,500 --> 00:20:10,100
Some sitting on the surface 
since the actual object bannu 

350
00:20:10,100 --> 00:20:13,500
was formed. 
Are there any specific questions

351
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:16,800
that you're particularly 
interested in answering as a 

352
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,500
result of all these analysis 
that you'll be performing? 

353
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,500
That would love to see 
chondrules inside of this 

354
00:20:22,500 --> 00:20:25,800
material, which are mm to sub 
millimeter size. 

355
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:29,300
Igneous, fear is that were 
melted in the early solar system

356
00:20:29,300 --> 00:20:31,800
that we don't really understand 
how they were mounted. 

357
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,600
And I would like to also, see 
the first rocks that actually 

358
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:37,600
give us the a Age of the solar 
system. 

359
00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:41,900
I would like to see that 
material in this return sample 

360
00:20:41,900 --> 00:20:46,200
and new kinds of what we call 
calcium-rich aluminum Rich 

361
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,500
inclusions and those are two 
classes of objects. 

362
00:20:49,500 --> 00:20:52,400
Have spent my career working on 
and I can never get enough of 

363
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:53,300
them. 
They're beautiful. 

364
00:20:53,700 --> 00:20:56,700
So these are some of the very, 
very earliest materials of the 

365
00:20:56,700 --> 00:20:58,900
solar system. 
Is that why you're particularly 

366
00:20:58,900 --> 00:21:00,600
interested in them? 
That's right. 

367
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:02,000
Some of my colleagues work on 
material. 

368
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,300
That's actually older which are 
pre-solar grains. 

369
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,800
I enjoy that as well, but I'm 
Petrology stand, them igneous 

370
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,300
petrology. 
So rocks have been melted or my 

371
00:21:10,300 --> 00:21:13,300
forte. 
I know it's a similar weird 

372
00:21:13,300 --> 00:21:15,700
environment to form, sedimentary
rocks. 

373
00:21:15,700 --> 00:21:18,500
But do you think you'll see some
sedimentary lithology? 

374
00:21:18,500 --> 00:21:23,200
She's in the samples as well? 
We seem to be able to see flat 

375
00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,800
particles that are ejected off 
the surface, some kind of 

376
00:21:28,100 --> 00:21:31,900
foliation, or layering in some 
of the rocks on the surface, The

377
00:21:31,900 --> 00:21:35,000
Boulders and potentially, even 
some of the material that 

378
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:38,100
escaped the The sample 
collection head when we moved 

379
00:21:38,100 --> 00:21:41,300
it. 
So we don't really understand 

380
00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:44,200
how meteorites were lithified. 
We don't understand how they 

381
00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:47,800
were turned into rocks, and 
we're hoping that we will get a 

382
00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,800
better idea of that process from
the return samples. 

383
00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,700
So I guess this is a kind of 
oxymoron, but do you actually 

384
00:21:55,700 --> 00:21:59,000
expect to see some surprises 
when you get your hands on those

385
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:00,800
samples? 
First of all, I would like to 

386
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,900
see a different population of 
chondrules that we don't have 

387
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,800
represented very well or 
Certainly represented at a very 

388
00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,900
small level, that would be 
something that would really 

389
00:22:10,900 --> 00:22:14,000
excite me. 
And I'd like to see that the 

390
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,600
mythologies we return. 
While the dominant one would be 

391
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:21,000
carbonaceous contract, like 
there would be other material 

392
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,000
there that before we got to the 
asteroid, we probably never 

393
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,000
would have predicted that we 
would have found them as a 

394
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,300
mixture with carbonaceous 
material and we know that 

395
00:22:31,300 --> 00:22:34,800
there's most likely exoticness 
material, what spectroscopy is 

396
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:36,300
called, luxurious material on 
the surface. 

397
00:22:36,300 --> 00:22:38,800
Surface of been do, which 
appears to be material that 

398
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,600
become from Vesta. 
So that indicates that in the 

399
00:22:42,700 --> 00:22:47,000
Collision stage while bennu's 
parent body was still in the 

400
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,800
asteroid belt that it got banged
by something that wasn't 

401
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:54,500
carbonaceous it collided and 
catastrophically perhaps with 

402
00:22:54,500 --> 00:22:58,100
something that was 
differentiated or melted and 

403
00:22:58,100 --> 00:23:01,500
there may be more cycles of 
collisions occurred. 

404
00:23:01,500 --> 00:23:04,100
We know this sir just explain 
you mentioned. 

405
00:23:04,100 --> 00:23:07,700
There might be something that 
came from Vest has the largest 

406
00:23:07,700 --> 00:23:09,700
known asteroid, is that right? 
Correct. 

407
00:23:09,700 --> 00:23:13,100
Vesta and Ceres are two large 
asteroid Vesta is a largest 

408
00:23:13,100 --> 00:23:17,300
differentiated largest, asteroid
period and series is a large 

409
00:23:17,300 --> 00:23:21,100
carbonaceous Lancaster which is 
actually potentially similar to 

410
00:23:21,100 --> 00:23:24,300
both through goo and venu. 
And they might get the as a 

411
00:23:24,308 --> 00:23:28,300
result of some kind of Shuffling
from collisions during the 

412
00:23:28,300 --> 00:23:31,900
process of formation of the news
that the thought right? 

413
00:23:31,900 --> 00:23:34,400
During the formation of the new 
during the what we call 

414
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,700
catastrophic disruption that 
broke the parent body of part in

415
00:23:37,700 --> 00:23:41,900
produced by a new and 
potentially cousins of bennu or 

416
00:23:41,900 --> 00:23:46,000
Raghu that are out there in the 
solar system, how that happened 

417
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,400
is potentially random. 
But also may be related to the 

418
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,700
migration of giant planets at 
some point in the early solar 

419
00:23:53,700 --> 00:23:57,000
system or much later on it's 
difficult to constrain but we're

420
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,800
hoping with the or our 
expectation, is that with the 

421
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:03,100
samples that we return, we can 
constrain some of that timeframe

422
00:24:03,100 --> 00:24:06,200
of catastrophic disruption for 
my last question. 

423
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:10,100
I'd like you to imagine that you
are in charge of NASA's 

424
00:24:10,100 --> 00:24:15,000
scientific space mission budget.
What would you use it for the 

425
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,200
solar system is a big place when
the areas that I think would be 

426
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:24,600
really important to explore our 
objects that are known as 

427
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,900
centering objects or Kuiper Belt
objects. 

428
00:24:27,900 --> 00:24:32,300
That are these cold hypothesized
to be truly primordial, 

429
00:24:32,900 --> 00:24:36,200
volatile, rich with lots of ice 
and rock in them. 

430
00:24:36,700 --> 00:24:41,000
That are out in the outer solar 
system, even so much as to go to

431
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:45,800
some of the rocky moons of the 
Jovian planets and bring back 

432
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,400
samples to study. 
I think would be really 

433
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:52,900
Illuminating for many scientific
reasons, Harold, C Conley jr. 

434
00:24:52,900 --> 00:24:55,700
Thank you very much. 
Appreciate it very much. 

435
00:24:55,700 --> 00:24:59,000
Thank you for more about 
geology, b, as well as pictures 

436
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,500
and diagrams that illustrate. 
This podcast, you can go to 

437
00:25:02,500 --> 00:25:03,700
geology B.com
