2/4: The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System Hardcover – March 19, 2024 by Dante Lauretta (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2024
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Asteroid-Hunter-Scientists-Journey-System/dp/1538722941
On September 11, 1999, humanity made a monumental discovery in the vastness of space. Scientists uncovered an asteroid of immense scientific importance—a colossal celestial entity. As massive as an aircraft carrier and towering as high as the iconic Empire State Building, this cosmic titan was later named Bennu. Remarkable for much more than its size, Bennu belonged to a rare breed of asteroids capable of revealing the essence of life itself. But just as Bennu became a beacon of promise, researchers identified a grave danger. Hurtling through space, it threatens to collide with our planet on September 24, 2182.
Leading the expedition was Dr. Dante Lauretta, the Principal Investigator of NASA's audacious OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission. Tasked with unraveling Bennu's mysteries, his team embarked on a daring quest to retrieve a precious sample from the asteroid's surface — one that held the potential to not only unlock the secrets of life's origins but also to avert an unprecedented catastrophe.
A tale of destiny and danger, The Asteroid Hunter chronicles the high-stakes mission firsthand, narrated by Dr. Lauretta. It offers readers an intimate glimpse into the riveting exploits of the mission and Dr. Lauretta's wild, winding personal journey to Bennu and back. Peeling back the curtain on the wonders of the cosmos, this enthralling account promises a rare glimpse into the tightly woven fabric of scientific exploration, where technical precision converges with humanity’s profound curiosity and indominable spirit.
1910 Royal Observatory at Greenwich
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Dachter with Dante Loretta, the professor is the author of a new book, The |
| 0:09.4 | Asteroid Hunter, a scientist's journey to the dawn of our solar system. It's autobiographical. It's extremely |
| 0:15.9 | helpful to understand the steps that NASA requires for a successful mission, even a mission |
| 0:21.2 | that is only partially successful has to go through all these steps. |
| 0:25.0 | Two rejections. |
| 0:26.0 | And now Mike Drake and lead, |
| 0:29.0 | and it's important to say Mike's job was management. |
| 0:32.0 | There's science, there's engineering, there's cost, there's |
| 0:35.4 | management, and Mike is a terrific manager and leaves Dante at the time for the |
| 0:42.1 | science and to put together the science team. You put together |
| 0:46.2 | after that December 2007, gut punch, I guess this is a shot to the head, you put together yet another program going forward and you've come up with a wonderful |
| 0:57.7 | name. |
| 0:58.7 | How did you do that? |
| 1:00.6 | When Mike brought me on, that the direction he gave me he said |
| 1:04.4 | Dante go define the scientific objectives for an asteroid sample return mission. |
| 1:09.2 | So I went home that night and I started thinking about the different communities that are interested |
| 1:14.3 | in asteroids. |
| 1:16.2 | And I started with the group that I'm most familiar with, the Cosmochemists and the astrobiologists that are looking for signs of the seeds of life. |
| 1:25.4 | How did Earth become a habitable world? |
| 1:28.0 | How did the organic molecules that make up all the biological organisms on our planet? |
| 1:32.2 | How did they get here? |
| 1:33.6 | Because our models of planetary formation |
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