Last night we got word that the OLA, or the laser altimeter on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft didn’t work as planned during a recent dress rehearsal of a sampling approach to the Osprey sample site on Bennu. The biggest impact this has is the images are likely going to be out of focus because OLA’s distance measurements are used to tell the camera where to focus. 

While that is super annoying, let’s face it, Bennu is rocks all the way down, and all the camera is going to do is show us more rocks. The science that OLA was designed to accomplish is complete.

While the team hopes to get the instrument fully functional again, OSIRIS-Rex’s mission still looks good to go as planned. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

More Information

• Status update: OSIRIS-REx Osprey Flyover (Phys.org)