Designing to sample the unknown: Lessons from OSIRIS-REx project systems engineering

Abstract

On September 8, 2016, the third NASA New Frontiers mission launched on an Atlas V 411. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) will rendezvous with asteroid Bennu in 2018, collect a sample in 2020, and return that sample to Earth in September 2023. The development team has overcome a number of challenges in order to design and build a system that will make contact with an unexplored, airless, low-gravity body. This paper will provide an overview of the mission, then focus in on the system-level challenges and some of the key systemlevel processes. Some of the lessons here are unique to the type of mission, like discussion of operating at a largely-unknown, low-gravity object. Other lessons, particularly from the build phase, have broad implications.The OSIRIS-REx risk management process was particularly effective in achieving an on-time and under-budget development effort. The systematic requirements management and verification and the system validation also helped identify numerous potential problems. The final assessment of the OSIRIS-REx performance will need to wait until the sample is returned in 2023, but this post-launch assessment will capture some of the key systems-engineering lessons from the development team.

Geiger-mode three-dimensional image sensor for eye-safe flash LIDAR

“…Therefore, this pixel circuit achieves a reduction in the dispersion of the detection timing and a reduction of the circuit area to about one quarter. Because the clock propagates in the Y-direction, pixels (15,15) and (15,31) have relative time offsets from (0,0) of 1 ns and 2 ns, respectively.…”

“…In ALHAT, Flash LIDAR [10,11,12,13] is positioned as an important sensor for obstacle detection. As a typical example, OSIRIS-REx, launched in 2016, uses Flash LIDAR for guidance, navigation and control [14,15,16,17].…”

InGaAs Geiger‐mode three‐dimensional image sensor for flash LIDAR

“…NASA's ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) project 1,2 is developing an autonomous system for identifying safe landing sites for future guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) systems for planetary landers. An example of a spacecraft using 3D images is OSIRIS‐REx, which launched in 2016 and used a scanning laser altimeter (its OLA instrument) and a flash LIDAR for GN&C just before landing 3–7 …”

“…An example of a spacecraft using 3D images is OSIRIS-REx, which launched in 2016 and used a scanning laser altimeter (its OLA instrument) and a flash LIDAR for GN&C just before landing. [3][4][5][6][7] Flash LIDAR is a LIDAR system that acquires a 3D image by emitting a diffuse laser into the field of view of a sensor (3D image sensor) with a two-dimensional array of avalanche photodiodes (APDs). Flash type LIDAR is characterized by its ability to acquire distance images at high frame rates with excellent time synchronization and high reliability due to its simple structure.…”