The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft rendezvoused with near-Earth asteroid Bennu in December 2018 and spent nearly two years characterizing the surface in unprecedented detail to identify the most promising site on the surface for collecting a sample. On October 20, 2020, the spacecraft descended to the surface and successfully acquired well in excess of the required 60 grams. The Mission Systems Engineering team played an integral role in Bennu proximity operations, guiding the mission planning process, ensuring readiness for the touch-and-go (TAG) sample collection, and facilitating critical decisions in the face of unexpected challenges. Despite being thrown significant “curve balls” from Bennu along the way – including a counterintuitively highly rough yet soft, compliant surface, and a barrage of particles on curved paths thrown into space – the high-performing OSIRIS-REx team persevered, successfully executing the most critical Sample Collection phase in the midst of a global pandemic.

Biography:

Ron Mink is a Senior Mission Systems Engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, serving the OSIRIS-REx project first as Deputy MSE through formulation & development, and now as mission’s MSE during operations. As a graduate of GSFC’s Systems Engineering Education & Development Program he also served as Lead SE on the Space Environment Testbeds project, which launched in June of 2019 on the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Test Program (STP) – 2 mission and successfully completed operations in June of 2021. Mr. Mink’s early years at GSFC involved working in the Optics Branch on various aspects of early development for the James Webb Space Telescope project. He also has interest in Planetary Defense and human exploration of asteroids.