The OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Re-Entry: Initial Results From a Historic Geophysical Recording Campaign Against an ‘Artificial Meteor’
Artificial and natural objects entering Earth’s atmosphere at hypervelocity generate powerful acoustic waves, but well-characterized observations of entries are exceptionally scarce. This is because impacts by small asteroids (1 m in diameter and greater) are rare and random, making it impractical to plan dedicated observational campaigns. Artificial objects arriving from interplanetary space have the parameters well known a priori and can serve as ideal proxies for studying meteoric phenomena and are critical for improving global monitoring; however, only a handful of spacecraft have re-entered since the end of the Apollo era. The most recent opportunity presented itself with the re-entry of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule (SRC) on September 24, 2023. A multi-institutional effort resulted in the largest to-date observational campaign to capture geophysical signals generated by an object as it re-entered the atmosphere from interplanetary space. We will describe the observational campaign, instruments, and the geographical coverage. We will also discuss field observations and present initial results. SNL is managed and operated by NTESS under DOE NNSA contract DE-NA0003525.
Session: The OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Re-entry: Geophysical Observations - I
Type: Oral
Room: Kahtnu 2
Date: 5/1/2024
Presentation Time: 05:15 PM (local time)
Presenting Author: Elizabeth Silber
Student Presenter: No
Additional Authors
Elizabeth Silber Presenting Author Corresponding Author esilbe@sandia.gov Sandia National Laboratories |
Daniel Bowman dbowma@sandia.gov Sandia National Laboratories |
Siddharth Krishnamoorthy siddharth.krishnamoorthy@jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Chris Carr cgcarr@lanl.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Robert Haaser rhaaser@lanl.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Brian Elbing elbing@okstate.edu Oklahoma State University |
Milton Garces garces@isla.hawaii.edu University of Hawaii at Manoa |
Charles Langston clangstn@memphis.edu University of Memphis |
Jeremy Webster jwebster@lanl.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory |
David P Eisenberg deisenberg@tda.com TDA Research, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, United States |
Eric Lam eric.lam.3@us.af.mil Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States |
Benjamin Fernando bfernan9@jh.edu Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
Cleat P Zeiler zeilercp@nv.doe.gov Nevada National Security Site, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States |
Yasuhiro Nishikawa nishikawa.yasuhiro@kochi-tech.ac.jp Kochi University of Technology, Kami City, , Japan |
Richard D Lewis richard.d.lewis1.civ@mail.mil Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States |
Luis A Ocampo Giraldo Luis.OcampoGiraldo@inl.gov Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States |
Stephen Arrowsmith sarrowsmith@mail.smu.edu Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, United States |
The OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Re-Entry: Initial Results From a Historic Geophysical Recording Campaign Against an ‘Artificial Meteor’
Category
The OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Re-entry: Geophysical Observations
Description