OCAMS: The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite

TL;DR

OCAMS, the camera suite on OSIRIS-REx, is a multi-camera system designed to acquire detailed images of Bennu for navigation, hazard assessment, and sample verification, enabling successful sample collection from a microgravity asteroid.

Contribution

This paper details the design, capabilities, and operational roles of OCAMS, a three-camera system tailored for comprehensive imaging during asteroid proximity operations.

Findings

OCAMS successfully documented Bennu's surface and hazards.

It enabled precise navigation and sample site verification.

The system provided high-resolution images crucial for mission success.

Abstract

The requirements-driven OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) acquires images essential to collecting a sample from the surface of Bennu. During proximity operations, these images document the presence of satellites and plumes, record spin state, enable an accurate digital terrain model of the shape of the asteroid and identify any surface hazards. They confirm the presence of sampleable regolith on the surface, observe the sampling event itself, and image the sample head in order to verify its readiness to be stowed. They document the history of Bennu as an example of early solar system material, as a microgravity body with a planetesimal size-scale, and as a carbonaceous object. OCAMS is fitted with three cameras. The MapCam records point-source color images on approach to the asteroid in order to connect ground-based point-source observations of Bennu to later higher-resolution surface spectral imaging. The SamCam documents the sample site before, during, and after it is disturbed by the sample mechanism. The PolyCam, using its focus mechanism, observes the sample site at sub-centimeter resolutions, revealing surface texture and morphology. While their imaging requirements divide naturally between the three cameras, they preserve a strong degree of functional overlap. OCAMS and the other spacecraft instruments allow the OSIRIS-REx mission to collect a sample from a microgravity body on the same visit during which it was first optically acquired from long range, a useful capability as humanity explores near-Earth, Main-Belt and Jupiter Trojan asteroids.