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.