Lauretta, Dante

This interview is with Dante Lauretta, Principal Investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu. The interview was recorded on July 22nd, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona and covers the following themes: 

  • Collaborating with former UA Lunar and Planetary Lab Director and first OSIRIS-REx P.I. Michael Drake. 

  • Conceptualizing an asteroid sample-return mission. Unsuccessfully pitching the mission to NASA. Harmonizing the mission proposal’s engineering, science, and budgeting. 

  • Learning that OSIRIS-REx had been funded. Forming a team to execute the mission. The challenges of managing staff and collaborative partners on a large project. 

  • International colleagues and learning from Japanese asteroid missions. 

  • Tucson/University of Arizona contributions to OSIRIS-REx. Degree of spacecraft control from Tucson. Programming the behavior of OSIRIS-REx. 

  • Launch of OSIRIS-REx. 

  • Learning to speak publicly.  

  • Redesigning mission while OSIRIS-REx was en route to asteroid Bennu. 

  • Difference between information gathered about Bennu from telescopes on Earth versus from OSIRIS-REx. 

  • Moment of OSIRIS-REx arrival at Bennu. 

  • Touching down and sampling Bennu. 

  • Maintaining institutional knowledge and workforce culture over a multi-decade project. 

Aengus Anderson