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On September 8, 2016 under perfect conditions in Cape Canaveral, Florida, an Atlas V rocket lifted off carrying a payload that will take a sample of an asteroid named Bennu that will, scientists hope, help them unravel the origins of life on Earth.
On hand to witness the historic event was Canadian Space Agency Senior Mission Scientist Tim Haltigin, who is responsible for overseeing Canada鈥檚 contribution to project dubbed听 OSIRIS-REx for Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer.
The Canadian bit is a laser altimiter on the top of the satellite called OLA. Once OSIRIS reaches Bennu, which measures approximately 500 metres in diameter, OLA will take thousands of measurements to map the asteroid and find a suitable place to take the sample.听
Haltigin hails from the Yorkton area having grown up on a farm near Canora.
鈥淛ust thinking back to the launch on Thursday, as I was watching this thing go up one of the things going through my head was, 鈥業 wish I could pull 10-year-old me off the farm and just plant him beside me and say, 鈥榯his, this is why we鈥檙e doing it鈥� ,鈥� he said.听
鈥淚t鈥檚 incredibly exciting, it鈥檚 historic ground-breaking science, and to be part of that, I honestly don鈥檛 know how to describe it."
The project started in 2004 and, if all goes well, it will be another seven years before the probe returns to Earth with its precious cargo.
鈥淭his thing has basically gone from a concept on a piece of paper to a spacecraft the size of an SUV,鈥� Haltigin told Yorkton This Week. 鈥淪o many people have put in so much work and so much time into getting this thing built and to see it go is a feeling of accomplishment, it鈥檚 a feeling of relief, it鈥檚 a reminder that the real work actually starts now, getting ready for the mission itself. It鈥檚 a lot of emotion for everyone, but excitement and relief are probably two of the big ones.鈥�
Despite the long timelines, Haltigin remains patient.
鈥淚 think you would start to get impatient if you were bored and if there was nothing left to do except wait, but we鈥檙e going to be awfully busy,鈥� he said.听
鈥淭he science team is starting to ramp up now so during the cruise, basically from now until we get to the asteroid in 2018, there鈥檚 still a ton of work to do making sure all of our data processing software is working correctly, making sure it鈥檚 communicating properly with all the ground systems, planning all of our observations, simulating data and preparing for when we get there.听
鈥淲hen we get there we鈥檙e not going to have time to do dress rehearsals then. We鈥檝e got to be ready to hit the ground running when we get there because the schedule during the mission itself is very, very tight and so we鈥檙e basically spending the next two years just getting ready for that and practicing.鈥�
Getting a pristine sample from an asteroid is so important because it represents a time that is lost to researchers back here on Earth.
鈥淭he mission, if we鈥檙e successful with this one, will actually be the largest sample returned from anywhere other than the Apollo missions, so this is going to be incredible,鈥� Haltigin explained.听
鈥淵ou can think of it almost as a time capsule. If we can go back and capture the sample and study it, it鈥檚 the equivalent of going back four, four-and-half-billion years and looking at what the chemistry of the early solar system [was] so that鈥檚 why this is particularly exciting.听
鈥淚f you think about the Earth as a cookie that鈥檚 been sitting on your counter for a while and if your job was to figure out what that cookie was made of, you could do it with some level of certainty. But the thing is all the ingredients have been mixed, they鈥檝e been baked they鈥檝e been crumbled, they鈥檝e been dehydrated so things have happened to them over the course of time, but this is an opportunity to go back into the mixing bowl and pull out a chocolate chip and a bit of baking soda. The raw ingredients of the planets are captured in these materials, in these minerals, so that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so important to understand them in their pristine state.鈥�
But it鈥檚 not just a project for the present.
鈥淥ne of the really important things that we want to stress here is that although it鈥檚 the science team now that gets to work on a portion of the sample, a large portion of the sample we鈥檙e putting away and we鈥檙e not touching and we鈥檙e not going to open for a long time because we want these samples to be available perfectly pristine so future generations of scientists can work on it,鈥� Haltigin said.听
鈥淪o, students in a high school chemistry class now, thinking 鈥榟ow am I ever going to be able to use this,鈥� or a kid in an undergraduate geology class, these are the people that are ultimately going to be working on the sample. What we tried to do here is pave the careers for a new generation of scientists so it鈥檚 up to them to get ready for it.听
鈥淚f you look at things that we鈥檙e learning from the Apollo program, for example, these are samples that are now 50 years old and we鈥檙e still making brand new discoveries on them because we鈥檝e got equipment now and we鈥檝e got scientific maturity to ask different questions now that frankly just didn鈥檛 exist then.听
鈥淎nd the leaps probably in the next 50 years are going to be even greater so understanding how we can do these analyses and the types of questions these people are going to be able to ask and work on, that鈥檚 the really exciting part.鈥�
Haltigin came to space exploration by a kind of circuitous route.
He started out studying biochemistry and doing malaria research before switching to geography. That led to rivers, river dynamics and hydraulic engineering to the end of helping trout habitats.
During that time some friends at McGill University entered a European Space Agency competition looking for ideas on how to find water on Mars.
鈥淚 said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know anything about this, but I鈥檓 really good at making Powerpoint presentations, so let me help out,鈥� Haltigin recalled.
鈥淲e worked on it together and we sort of made it through round after round of selection and the European Space Agency ended up flying us to Barcelona as finalists in this international competition.听
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 win, but when we got back the professor who was sort of supervising the work, basically offered me a position to do a Ph.D. on the subject because we had advanced the concept so well.
鈥淚 ended up completely switching gears from hydraulics of trout habitats to comparing landscapes in the Canadian high arctic to similar ones on Mars.鈥澨�
The CSA had funded much of Haltigin鈥檚 research and when he graduated hired him as a research scientist.
鈥淚t was definitely not if I do 鈥楢鈥� then you get to 鈥楤',鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was more like if I do 鈥楢鈥� then maybe you鈥檒l eat an orange and see a dog. Things happened to line up in the right way eventually. I鈥檓 just really lucky to be where I am right now.鈥�
That good fortune, he believes, comes with responsibility.
鈥淥ne of the things that really struck me on Thursday was that I was representing my town, my province, my country and my planet all at the same time and it鈥檚 pretty overwhelming to be honest because you feel like you鈥檙e taking people along for the ride and you want to be able to share the experience with everyone.听
鈥淵ou know how it is in Yorkton or places like Canora. It鈥檚 a small town and everyone is like extended family in one way or the other, so to be able to share any part of the experience, it鈥檚 really important to me.鈥�
