1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:04,030 [slate] 2 00:00:04,050 --> 00:00:08,190 So this is a mission 3 00:00:08,210 --> 00:00:12,270 that really is a time capsule view of 4 00:00:12,290 --> 00:00:16,470 the origin of our solar system and even the materials that made Earth such a special 5 00:00:16,490 --> 00:00:20,570 place where we live, where we came to be. And so by going to 6 00:00:20,590 --> 00:00:24,640 these primitive objects, the most countable infinite we have in our 7 00:00:24,660 --> 00:00:28,730 in our solar system. We get the left over debris of that first period of formation 8 00:00:28,750 --> 00:00:32,820 when the planets came forth. When atmospheres and climates formed 9 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,010 And when the stuff flying around was available to reach these objects 10 00:00:37,030 --> 00:00:41,070 like Earth, like Mars, like even Europa and 11 00:00:41,090 --> 00:00:45,160 this mission goes to touch, taste, feel, explore 12 00:00:45,180 --> 00:00:49,310 and understand those kinds of objects. And OSIRIS-REx is 13 00:00:49,330 --> 00:00:53,510 three missions in one to make that kind of exploration cost-effectively 14 00:00:53,530 --> 00:00:57,550 for not much more than the price of a blockbuster movie. [slate] 15 00:00:57,570 --> 00:01:01,570 16 00:01:01,590 --> 00:01:05,630 This mission will tell us about how the blocking blocks 17 00:01:05,650 --> 00:01:09,690 of chemistry got to early Earth and 18 00:01:09,710 --> 00:01:13,780 or any planet for that matter, and may have generated the 19 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:17,910 catalyzed the chemistry that led to the formation of life or pre-life. 20 00:01:17,930 --> 00:01:22,100 And those are huge questions. They're all about where did we come 21 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:26,120 Where does life spring forth on these early planets 22 00:01:26,140 --> 00:01:30,170 that were probably extremely baron and challenging. And so this mission 23 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:34,260 will go to the place where that stuff came from and bring it back to Earth 24 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,420 to studied for generations of women and men in laboratories. 25 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:42,440 [slate] 26 00:01:42,460 --> 00:01:46,530 Yes early in the solar system in the maelstrom 27 00:01:46,550 --> 00:01:50,660 of stuff that formed our planet and others, the leftover 28 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,860 debris was in a collisional mode with these worlds. These small 29 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,950 asteroids like Bennu were colliding with Earth delivering materials. 30 00:01:58,970 --> 00:02:03,070 Those materials included what we think were organic chemicals. 31 00:02:03,090 --> 00:02:07,220 The kind, of seed corn, if you will, the Lego building blocks 32 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:11,280 of the chemicals that became eventually what we think was the onset of life. 33 00:02:11,300 --> 00:02:15,330 And that early time was lost in the Earth record. 34 00:02:15,350 --> 00:02:19,420 We have to go elsewhere to find it because our planet is so dynamic, so exciting. 35 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:23,430 And that's what this mission is all about. 36 00:02:23,450 --> 00:02:27,530 [slate] 37 00:02:27,550 --> 00:02:31,670 This mission is almost unimaginably magical 38 00:02:31,690 --> 00:02:35,840 to folks like me, all of us who have been exploring the solar system 39 00:02:35,860 --> 00:02:39,890 for so long across generations. Because all in one it 40 00:02:39,910 --> 00:02:43,950 is an asteroid reconnaissance mission at the scale where we'll see things 41 00:02:43,970 --> 00:02:48,050 an inch scale - the scale of insects. Not that there are any on these asteroids. 42 00:02:48,070 --> 00:02:52,260 For this object. We'll look at it in three dimensions. We'll do what is 43 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:56,300 equivalent of medical imaging inside it with our ability to map its surface. 44 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,370 And then we'll touch, taste and return materials. 45 00:03:00,390 --> 00:03:04,490 These primitive materials. All of that in one mission for the price of a 46 00:03:04,510 --> 00:03:08,630 major motion picture. This is exploration at its best 47 00:03:08,650 --> 00:03:12,670 and in a very American way. And we even have partners of course from Canada 48 00:03:12,690 --> 00:03:16,680 and Japan on this mission. So it's dazzling to people like me. 49 00:03:16,700 --> 00:03:20,710 [slate] 50 00:03:20,730 --> 00:03:24,840 This is a mission about the origin of the solar system. 51 00:03:24,860 --> 00:03:28,990 Many, many billion years before that the 52 00:03:29,010 --> 00:03:33,080 current gestation of our universe was formed in what is often called a 53 00:03:33,100 --> 00:03:37,180 big bang. To some nobelist it's actually a series of big firecrackers. But in any 54 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,320 event that was 10 billion years before this time. So Bennu 55 00:03:41,340 --> 00:03:45,510 is a time capsule for our solar system. But our 56 00:03:45,530 --> 00:03:49,560 universe is bigger. And that's what makes this special. We can look at our own neighborhood 57 00:03:49,580 --> 00:03:53,640 first through this kind of mission to explore Bennu and like 58 00:03:53,660 --> 00:03:57,760 similar objects and then project them back in time to other histories 59 00:03:57,780 --> 00:04:05,310 of other solar systems that we're now starting to understand as we explore 60 00:04:05,330 --> 00:04:09,360 exoplanets with our grand telescopes. 61 00:04:09,380 --> 00:04:13,520 [slate] So an asteroid is an object, a small inert object that flies 62 00:04:13,540 --> 00:04:17,590 in space in orbit around the sun and they often 63 00:04:17,610 --> 00:04:21,700 collide or can collide with planets. And they're small objects 64 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,920 you know a few miles across or smaller. Comets are 65 00:04:25,940 --> 00:04:30,090 volatile-baring sort of asteroid-like objects that are 66 00:04:30,110 --> 00:04:34,160 full of gas and dust that erupts as they approach the sun in their long orbit 67 00:04:34,180 --> 00:04:38,280 and produce tails as they get closer to the sun. Meteors 68 00:04:38,300 --> 00:04:42,440 and meteorites are things that fall into the Earth. They could be from comets or asteroids. 69 00:04:42,460 --> 00:04:45,465 The ones that land on the Earth are meteorites.