The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System

by Dante Lauretta

A "captivating, behind-the-scenes account" of NASA’s historic OSIRIS-REx mission to return an asteroid sample and unlock the mystery of formation on life on earth braided with the remarkable life story of the mission’s leader, Dr. Dante Lauretta (Sara Seager).

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.

 

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Space, Astronomy, Memoir, History, Technology

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2024

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I understand about 70% of this book! That says more about Dante Lauretta than me, however. The Asteroid Hunter is part memoir, part science, part thriller, and all great.

There is a very small overlap between my love of history and science. I like to learn the science just enough to understand what is going on and then I want to read about everything else. Lauretta writes the story of his mission OSIRIS-REx in a way that anyone could enjoy it. They are landing on an asteroid. That should be cool no matter who is reading.

Lauretta keeps this book moving at a brisk place so that the reader never gets the chance to be bored. What I especially appreciated is that while the narrative revolves around Lauretta as the center of the story, I never felt like Lauretta thought he was the story. The mission is what we are here for and that's the way he tells the story and it's a riveting one.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing.)

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nice scientific memoir of the OSIRIS-REx mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu has a particular resonance for me, as I lived in Tucson for many years as a working geologist (and Space Cadet), and once saw the author give a talk on this mission in its early days. In another life I might have been a planetary scientist…
Well. I am one, actually, specializing in mineral resources of this planet. Long-retired now.

Here’s a nice interview with the author about his book and project that will get you up to speed: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/sc...
He’s an interesting guy, who had a hard-scrabble childhood, made good use of his hard-earned Arizona college degree, had some good mentors along the way, and has tried to do good by his students and colleagues. Nice guy, and a near-great science/engineering project administrator. His book is a little clunky. My advice: skip his dorky parable of the two carbon atoms! I set the book aside for a day to read something more entertaining. (That book was an early DNF….)

When I came back, Lauretta just had the head honcho job dumped on him when the previous P.I. died. He coped, and was good at it. Ultimately OSIRIS-REx became a billion-dollar project, and returned with about 122 grams of asteroid regolith. That’s about $8 million per gram! Results are just starting to appear. Lauretta thinks the sodium-rich phosphates may be a key discovery, and he hopes the Bennu samples may help to work out the origin of life on Earth. And we all devoutly hope the thing doesn’t hit us! It has a guesstimated 1-in-1,750 chance of crashing into Earth between 2178 and 2290.

The striking thing about space scientists who get involved with NASA planetary-exploration missions: it’s absolutely devastating to spend years working on a mission that crashes and burns! Many do. OTOH, the good ones can go on for many, many years. Such as the Voyager probes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager... . Launched in 1977, both are still sending back Good Stuff in 2024! Plus, Carl Sagan’s Golden Record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager...

So. For me this was an easy 4+ star read. Recommended reading, if this sort of thing interests you. And it should! Humanity at its best. And the robots are getting better. Something AI will really help with. Forget the manned-mission $$$$ silliness. “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids…”

[Jeff Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll admit there are many things talked about in this book that are way over my head, but it is fascinating to read about the literally years of planning that go into a mission such as this. I’m glad that there are people that have the skills, knowledge, capabilities and intellect to make something like this a reality. Let’s face it, if the advancement of humankind depended on me, we’d still be living in caves…

[Yibbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ingenuity of space explorers and the sheer amount of speculation they must deal with at every point always amaze me. That is what gives this story its tension. Have they guessed right about the surface roughness of a Bennu? Have they calculated the force of the solar wind correctly? What other surprises might this little object throw at them? Will a rock sample really answer all their questions about the beginning of the universe, of humanity? This book though is full of speculation of a seemingly un-answerable type. After all, it’s a book about the search for the start of everything in the universe.
The actual history of the Osiris-Rex mission was interesting, the technological advances, the politics, the troubles, and solutions were all fascinating. The autobiographical bits were poignant, but occasionally a bit distracting. The carbon-twin sections strange fantasy. The whole thing though felt overwritten almost self-promotional. Perhaps that can’t be helped as his job for most of the mission involved selling this project to NASA, congress, engineers, and the media. He deeply cares about every nugget of science and wants his readers to understand just how amazing he finds it all. And that does keep the book moving. It held my attention, even if I did find myself anxious for him to get back to the mission.
This author and I grew up in the same city. I fully appreciated his gorgeous descriptions of the desert. That was about all that we had in common though. He spent his career, and millions of dollars, desperately trying to find some supporting clues for the most current speculation about how he got here. I grew up believing, and still, believe that those answers are adequately answered in the first six chapters of Genesis. That meant that ideologically we couldn’t disagree more. But his accomplishments are impressive. I just think his objectives are very misplaced. Was it a good use of tax-payer money? Hesitant… yes… Just because we now have rocks from an asteroid.
It was a fun read despite all that though. There were a couple of curse words.

[Paul Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many people can identify a particular point where they found their purpose in life. It can be an event of some kind, either celebratory or traumatic; a chance encounter with someone; or maybe a book. For Dante Lauretta, it was an ad in a student newspaper.

“WORK FOR NASA” declared the full-page ad that he stumbled across while perusing the Arizona Daily Wildcat after a shift as a short-order cook in a Tucson restaurant. Lauretta was at the time a student at the University of Arizona, about to graduate but unsure of what he would so next. The prospect of working with NASA—in this case on the agency’s short-lived support for SETI research—provided that purpose: “It was as if the dirty window I had been looking through my whole life was wiped clean. I had found my path,” he recalls in his memoir, The Asteroid Hunter.
The story of OSIRIS-REx is one of science and engineering, but also of people: “the magnificent ensemble of scientists, engineers, and cosmic aficionados who had rallied together to manifest this vision,” he writes.

The bulk of the book follows Lauretta after returned to the university about decade later, this time on the faculty at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL), with an interest in cosmochemistry and astrobiology. The director of LPL, Mike Drake, offered him an opportunity to take a leadership role in a mission being developed by the lab and Lockheed Martin: returning samples from an asteroid. Drake would be the principal investigator (PI), handling the “up and out” management of the mission, while Lauretta took care of the “down and in” of overseeing the science.

LPL and Lockheed twice pitched the mission, dubbed OSIRIS, for NASA’s Discovery program of relatively low-cost science missions, but was not selected. An opportunity then emerged to offer a scaled-up version of the mission for the larger New Frontiers program. That version of the mission, now known as OSIRIS-REx (for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer), was selected in 2011 for development.

That selection was both the culmination of years of development but also just the beginning. OSIRIS-REx would face many of the familiar technical and programmatic challenges of any mission, exacerbated by tragedy: Drake, in ill health for several years, died just a few months after NASA selected the mission, making Lauretta the PI. Now he would have to deal with the up and out aspects of managing a mission.

The book offers a detailed insider’s perspective of developing and then operating OSIRIS-REx as it made its way to the asteroid Bennu to collect samples that it returned to Earth last September. For those that have followed the mission, there are not too many new details the book discloses that had not been mentioned throughout the course of the mission, but it was interesting to read how he and the mission team dealt with various obstacles. (One interesting item: at one point Lauretta and the OSIRIS-REx team caught wind that JPL was lobbying NASA Headquarters to cancel the mission, yet to be formally confirmed for development, and devote its resources to the Asteroid Redirect Mission, arguing that ARM was a presidential priority and that it could return tons, not grams of material. NASA decided to proceed with OSIRIS-REx, and ARM soon died.)

The story of OSIRIS-REx is one of science and engineering, but also of people: “the magnificent ensemble of scientists, engineers, and cosmic aficionados who had rallied together to manifest this vision,” he writes in the book’s epilogue. The journey that started with seeing a newspaper ad continues with samples from an asteroid now being studied in labs by scientists like Lauretta, hoping to better understand our solar system and ourselves—and perhaps be that thing that provides inspiration for another generation.

[Wendelle]

this book is the incredible memoir of Prof. Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission to land on and explore an asteroid for proof of meteoritic origins of carbon, spectroscopy, resource investigation, safety of Earth from asteroid impacts, and regolith exploration. This account is full of descriptive detail that lends to the reader the experience of nail-biting anxiety, adaptability, sense of adventure, and glorious purpose of scientific awe and learning that pervades the near-Earth asteroid exploration missions.

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down. In the Asteroid Hunter, Dante Lauretta (professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona and the principal investigator on NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission) writes about his decades-long career in science in part-memoir, part-popular science book fashion. For me, the best part of the book was learning more about the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, which launched a spacecraft in 2017 to 101955 Bennu, an Apollo-group asteroid and near-earth object (NEO) 490 meters in diameter which has a 1-in-1,750 chance of impacting Earth between 2178 and 2290 (per Wiki), successfully collected a sample, and returned it to Earth in 2023. I've long been fascinated with near-earth objects and risk assessment, having browsed on NASA's NEO sentry data on and off for years, so I understand the importance and magnitude of a successful mission like this. (As a side note, the OSIRIS spacecraft is still active and currently performing the OSIRIS-APEX mission: after dropping off its geological sample from Bennu, it rerouted to orbit another NEO, Apophis, to rendezvous in 2029; the principal investigator of this mission is Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina, who was deputy PI under this book's author for OSIRIS-REx.)

While the science writing in The Asteroid Hunter is excellent, I thought the memoir element extended a bit too much. I found the interludes off-putting and somewhat narcissistic, and overall I thought Lauretta focused too much on his own contributions to the mission (not to say that they weren't essential) and didn't highlight the efforts of the hundreds of people on the OSIRIS-REx team enough. Science is a team sport, especially when the project is to launch a billion dollar spacecraft. I've read a lot scientist memoirs, and authors usually score a lot of brownie points with me when they name and highlight the excellent work of their graduate students and postdocs or other junior colleagues -- which is a win-win because it gives these up-and-coming scientists much-earned credit and clout to help their careers AND reflects well on the senior scientist for training and mentoring excellently. Unfortunately, the mentions of these people in Lauretta's book were few and far between -- only his late mentor and initial OSIRIS-REx PI Michael Drake was lauded.

Further reading:
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern
The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission by Jim Bell
Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space by Stephen Walker
When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach by Ashlee Vance
The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers by Emily Levesque

My stats:
Book 127 for 2024
Book 1730 cumulatively

[John Giroux · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't crazy about the "two carbon atoms" nonsense, also I was disappointed that there was NOTHING about the problem they had opening it up once it was back on Earth - there was an issue removing two of the 35 fasteners that sealed the TAGSAM head, but there was nothing about this in the book, which disappointed me, since it seemed the media never fully explained what the issue was either.

[Clau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books reads as a memoir , a scientific retelling of the OSIRIS-Rex mission and a thriller. This is not an easy feat to pull when talking about science.
It’s amazing to be able to read such an insider view of events that are fairly recent about space investigation. Adding the human side , understanding the challenges and keeping it light enough so even if you don’t work for NASA you can enjoy it.

While I do love reading about the Universe and its mysteries , I hadn’t considered reading this one until I saw that the audiobook included the participation of Queen’s legend Brian May. His interludes provide an additional poetic and artsy collaboration (Brian May did have a role in helping the team with stereo visuals of the asteroid, let’s not forget besides being a rockstar he is an actual astrophysicist)

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part memoir, part foray into a NASA mission to study a near-Earth asteroid, I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected to! Despite that some of the science was over my head, it was a great and quick read. My only regret is that since I received an advanced readers copy, the epilogue was missing. I would've loved to read that!

Here is how I tend to rate books:
5 stars - outstanding, would read multiple times and keep in my personal library
4 stars - great book and would recommend to others
3 stars - a decent, average read that was easy to get through
2 stars - would not recommend to others
1 star - I don't give these out as I would just DNF

I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway and was asked to give my honest review.

[Scott Kardel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dante Lauretta's memoir is a rich and engaging history of the OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve samples from the asteroid Bennu. He nicely explains the science goals and engineering challenges of the mission in a personal and non-technical way that should appeal to anyone interested in science, especially astronomy and planetary science.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best acronym ever: ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) in this context, the parabola's arc of flight from Earth into Outer Space and back. Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing, the origin providing me with a copy of Dante S. Lauretta's "The Asteroid Hunter." my review will mirror the book itself, both personal and descriptive of a scientific mission.

Even if one follows space science closely and already knows the end result of the quest to retrieve samples from the asteroid Bennu, Lauretta's narrative still reads like a cliffhanger, an edge of your seat, what happens next page turner. He begins with a disaster scenario: what if this asteroid collided with the Earth? IMHO, this opening runs off orbit, designed for thrill seekers, since the question never really concerns Lauretta's team or other cosmologists. They already know how to predict and plan in case of this catastrophic event. The dramatic beginning may have an ulterior motive: justification for spending money on this project for those who pooh-pooh space funding in general, relieving the tension between pure science and budget hawks. But Lauretta's book doesn't focus of this kind of tension; I'll try to describe the exhilarating tension his writing evoked in me.

Tension in Physics: the act or process of pulling something tightly; the condition of being stretched, tautness; action/reaction pair of forces.

Tension emotionally: a state of inner unrest, nervousness, imbalance, anxiety, excitement, strain.

"The Asteroid Hunter" combines both. Scientifically, the action/reaction pair of forces, how the project manager of the Mission must compete with other groups for funding and consideration, then within his own team deal with recruitment, squabbles between scientists and engineers, decide which problem matters more than other problems, how to deal with unforeseen disasters, how to prioritize, neutralize, and still have fun.

I have a rough idea of both the heavy responsibility and the sheer exuberance Lauretta describes because of the covalent bond between me and my late step-father, a NASA astrobiologist, an extremophile specialist, who worked on the Mars Voyager missions, seeking not Intelligence but mere life in Space. Whenever Lauretta writes of underfunded and underappreciated ventures, he triggers memories of Bob constantly flying to NASA HQ in D.C., essentially begging for money.

One point that fascinated me: Lauretta's explanation (p.36) of how Bob became an "astrobiologist," when before he was just a "microbiologist" who worked at NASA. In 1966, "evidence of primitive microbial life in a fragment of a Martian meteorite... produced something close to proof that life could exist outside of Earth... it launched the new field of astrobiology." Ironically, this meteorite, found in Antarctica, also forced reconsideration of the Viking missions–Mars might indeed have once had life. Bob's work vindicated!

Kudos to Lauretta, however, for his fair-minded and appreciative outlook on the ongoing war between scientists and engineers, a battle I suspect few outside the field know takes place. For example, a scientist sees the asteroid Phaeton as showing "comet-like activity," which means "part of compelling science." From the engineering perspective, however, "the concept of a rock comet took on a menacing aspect." (p.122). Nix Phaeton. My step-father retained the more stereotypical view of the scientist, ignoring engineering feats or pushing them off to the side, while "The Asteroid Hunter" accounts for both the scientist's frustration in dealing with engineers' objections and their essential role in creating a successful Mission.

Bob died just as the tertiary alliance between NASA, industry, and Academia expanded; he used to visit me during my grad school days at UC Berkeley when he visited their Space Sciences Lab. Since his lab was located at NASA Ames/Moffett Field, the large wind tunnel around the corner was frequently visited by aerospace engineers from Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and other aircraft industry titans (as well the site of landings by Air Force One). But nothing like the equal investment and shares emphasized by PI Lauretta, who had to balance all three interests and keep all players satisfied. He also stays neck and neck with the extreme tension of competition, the race for space. In his later years, my step-father became a decision maker on which projects would fly on the Space Station and Space Shuttle or stay grounded, all of them worthy, yet not enough space.

Despite these internal challenges, no more warring days of Sputnik and the nationalism of the Space Race. Scientific interest erases country of origin and political interests, as evidenced by Lauretta's description of the unfortunate Japanese disaster Hayabusa, a spacecraft to the asteroid Ryugu (p.146), As he writes: "One of the best things about being part of a space mission is being a member of an international community" (p.147). The cosmos puts us into perspective: specks in the universe. Earth as our home.

If we search for life, we search for carbon, our base. When Bob died, we scattered his ashed near the Golden Gate Bridge. When I look out on the Pacific, I think, there he is, carbon atoms, Bob as fish food. The Octopus's Garden lives on.

[Bruce Feingold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the lonnnnnng process of space research. It was really interesting to learn about how they made their initial assumptions about Bennu, what they got wrong, and how they dealt with the challenge that presented.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

More memoir than I was expecting, but the science and story behind OSIRIS-REx were interesting, and as a U of A alumna, I am very proud of my alma mater’s role in this mission.

[Garry Hoffmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read of a scientist's painstaking search for answers.

[Sam Talkington · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brain gizzard. So much unexpected situations for this NASA Team.

Learned very important points.

The significance of Carbon atoms and the fact Bennu is a relatively wet near earth object.

I will be visiting this again.

INCREDIBLE!!!!!

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

cool detailed behind the scenes with the OSIRIS REC astroid mission! the interludes with the British narrator felt weird to me, but they're short and I'm assuming artistic. Dante is a good narrator and you could feel his enthusiasm and passions at all the important points.

[Cassy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who recommended this book to me: His passion and clarity during session at NBF '24

I would recommend this book to: Those seeking an interesting, step-by-step tale of an academic heading a scientific mission into space, where science is simplified for a general audience (thank you) and with a tad too much motivational talk

[Richard Archambault · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this one down. I loved it. The author made me feel the rollercoaster of emotions he went through every step of the way in this remarkable accomplishment. I love books like this. Similar books I've read and enjoyed include:

* The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission
* Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto (The Asteroid Hunter thankfully didn't go into too much detail regarding budgets and administrations, which kept it ticking long at a great pace)
* Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet
* Missions to Mars
Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon
* and heck, even Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything; not quite the same topic, but I enjoyed the part-memoir parts of Asteroid Hunter, which made me think of that excellent book by Amanda Gefter

I'm also glad I read A Meteorite Killed My Cow: Stuff That Happens When Space Rocks Hit Earth right before this, as I had a better understanding of the science of meteorites and asteroids that perfectly complimented this book.

Highly recommend for the science and the thrill of a successful mission, despite everything that "Trickster Bennu" threw at the team.

[Charles Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

87%

Let me make a preface here. This is a stupid book. Not the content itself, but how it's portrayed is stupid. It's like someone that made a sci-fi book because they're like, yeah, let's make a science fiction book, even though it's nonfiction. And that's why it's so funny how it paints the narrative and how people talk and think. That is the funniest thing. You really must have had a solid idea in your brain for making this out to be a space odyssey. Woosh, sci-fi, including with the audiobook narrator making these funny sounds of mysticism, deep voice, the cosmos are a fantastical wonder beam of lust and love. And it's like, okay, then. That was surprising and off-putting. I truly wish you would have put this forward as a scientific literature, because let's be real here. People don't really read books right now. And hopefully they do, but people that are reading books are really in this more for a scientific perspective, especially in this genre and niche. So it would be more helpful and more pleasing to the audience if you put this forward as like a factual autobiography rather than making it fanciful. That being said, the scientists into the asteroid study themselves and the projections are cool. You should have gone into more detail about how you were doing the data projections, the equipment and time and the work, rather than making this an emotional journey, because I want to know about the details and the rocket science. Now, as a planetary defense mechanism, this is great, because we don't get told about things that we should get told about. Like, it's not well broadcast. What I'm interested in with asteroid hunting specifically is the idea of mining and excavating on these. And that's a great way to do it. By just taking them apart and bringing them back to Earth.

[Melissa Tesoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Asteroid Hunter is the first Advance Reader Copy I won from Goodreads - I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but I was curious about a space mission from someone who was actually involved. Because my general feeling is that space is a waste of time and money when we’ve got enough shit going on on our own planet we can’t handle. But it talks about the mission, how it is interesting and why it is important, and takes the reader through a scientist’s thought process along every step of a very long career literally dedicated to one simple thing: gathering a couple ounces of dust from an asteroid a couple light years away to learn more about the origin of life on earth. It took a very complicated scientific thing and broke it down step by step, explaining reasoning, thoughts, hopes, fears, technical advances and struggles in a way that would interest even a layperson relatively unfamiliar with most of the jargon. The author explains why each element of each step is important and what adjustments were made to create the mission. It was a story many, many years in the making. How can it take sixteen years to send a spacecraft out to pick up a couple ounces of what amounts to space dirt? But the action continued every chapter and remained relevant throughout. I never got bored as a reader and wanted to continue to hear about the successes and failures that led to new discoveries and then new successes in techniques and understanding of space and physics and optics and data collection and analysis. No victory or setback was stifled; they each play an essential part in the outcome of the mission, which was a pleasant surprise. It was not just about everything that went right, it was also about everything that went wrong. So did they succeed? Read the book to find out.

[McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dante Lauretta is a professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona. In The Asteroid Hunter, he provides the layperson's account of overseeing the NASA project Osiris Rex in which we collected rocks and soil from an asteroid called Bennu to gain insight into the possibility of life on our planet originating from organic compounds brought to Earth from the impact of similar asteroids. His writing is generally clear (and not too technical), as he follows the dramatic ups and downs of a decades-long project that was executed almost flawlessly.

In addition to learning about asteroids and cosmochemistry (who knew that was a field?), I also appreciated that Lauretta's account explains how university faculty can partner with the US government to successfully take on projects that each sector alone might not be able to achieve. Anyone who wants to understand the life of a STEM faculty member might find this account illuminating. I do wish there were a little more discussion at the end about the importance of the findings from Bennu's soil samples, as well as less of the fantastical thread woven throughout imagining twin carbon molecules separated millions of years ago and brought back together through this project. However, those small flaws did not diminish my enjoyment of learning from reading The Asteroid Hunter.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of space exploration I read about the groundbreaking project to land on an asteroid and collect samples. Considering the very real threat of such a body hitting Earth and repeating what happened to the dinosaurs, it seems like one of the most important endeavors that is possible to undertake. This book was written by the person who dreamed, coordinated and ultimately executed such a huge accomplishment. Anyone who follows the news knows what happened but, going in blind, it would be very suspenseful. For informed readers it is fascinating to learn first hand how Osiris-REx was created and became successful where others had failed. From the beginning of Lauretta’s career, to the people who helped make this happen, this candid memoir doesn’t shy away from the mistakes, miscalculations, conflicts and doubts that plagued the project. The author has such a straightforward style, that I felt like I was part of his team. The little spaceship is now on its way to a new destination, the terrifically and terrifyingly named Apophis, and I hope there will be more books by Lauretta explaining everything that Bennu has and will teach us.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Grand Central Publishing.

[CYIReadBooks (Claire) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Asteroid Hunter is author Dante Lauretta’s autobiography that chronicles his life’s work and experience in hunting and tracking Bennu. A formidable asteroid as large as an aircraft carrier, and as tall as the Empire State Building.

The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the scientific development, and exploration of the universe. In particular, how the earth came to be.

By sampling and studying asteroids with similar biological markers as earth, Lauretta and his team of scientists hope to discover earth’s origins, and determine if there could be other biologic lifeforms, or at least attempt to determine the origins of earth and its inhabitants.

There is a lot of scientific and technical language. But since I have a keen interest in STEM, I managed to glean a lot of information and the whole process intrigued me. And because most of the research is conducted in my home state of Arizona, I was even more fascinated.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book even though the research isn’t finalized yet. The samplings from the asteroid still has to make it back to earth for testing and further study. But for what has been written thus far, the book has exceeded my expectations. Five stars.

I received a DRC from Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley. This

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part memoir, part compelling science about asteroids, The Asteroid Hunter takes you through a billion mile, decades spanning journey about the mission that could: OSIRIS-REx. You will get a behind the scenes look at what it takes to create a mission from scratch, and all the heartpounding moments in between.

As someone who worked on the OSIRIS-REx mission as an Arizona Space Grant student, I found this story inspiring yet lacking some of the finer details of science. I wish there was more explanation about Bennu's nature as well as some of the other components of the mission including why there was an infrared instrument on the spacecraft and what it can tell us about Bennu in more depth. I also think some of the language at the beginning of the book was non-inclusive of the whole OSIRIS-REx team. Dante used the word "my" and "me" when he certainly did not do this mission alone. I found this disappointing. I also think the way Dante described the discovery of organic molecules, especially with the Asteroid from Antarctica, gave a false impression about life. These discoveries are exciting, but to an unkowing and curious public, the message could get distorted.

[W. Derek Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Dante Lauretta narrates his journey to becoming an asteroid hunter. This is a journey that begins in his childhood years in Arizona and leads all the way to his mission as the Primary Investigator (PI) of the Osiris-Rex Mission to collect a sample of the asteroid Bennu. Along the way, Lauretta explains the scientific importance of the mission to Bennu. I enjoyed the sections in which the author narrated his academic and scientific journey, together with the story of the Osiris-Rex mission. The author did add a dimension of suspense to his narrative as he described the various dangers the Osiris-Rex mission faced throughout its long journey from concept to execution, and this did give a sense of real drama. However, I did not really enjoy the interludes in which Sir Brian May attempts to provide a dramatic interpretation of the fanciful and highly speculative evolution of a fictional pair of twinned carbon atoms from their formation to their entanglement in Bennu and on to their eventual collection by Osiris-Rex.

[Kimberly (spacetoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at Lauretta’s life and how he became the PI of the groundbreaking and record-setting OSIRIS-REx space mission - which flew to an asteroid, touched down, collected a sample, and returned that sample to Earth.

WOW. The premise of this book is right up my alley, but Lauretta’s execution was more than I could have hoped for. This book is the right amount of personal information and touching for a scientific memoir, balanced with history, politics, and science. It also includes absolutely thrilling scenes of tension waiting for critical mission actions. There is strength in community connection and the community of scientists and explorers, which Lauretta shares in and shows how these relationships add to the success of the mission. Overall, it was such a delight to spend time with Lauretta and hear his story.

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for my eARC.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this if you've ever been fascinated with things outside our planet, curious about the human obsession with our own origins, or wondered about why as a society we take on seemingly impossible tasks and the machinery needed to accomplish them. Approachable regardless of scientific or engineering background, Lauretta manages to walk the line between enough explanation so most can follow the compelling story and enough technical detail to keep one's intellectual curiosity peaked, while arming you with enough information to find out more elsewhere if you're so inclined.

The advanced reading copy I received did not contain the Epilogue but I believe it would have been a satisfying ending given the current state of the project. It would have been nicer to read it in Lauretta's own words.

I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway.

[STEPHEN PLETKO!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

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A BEHIND-THE-SCENES ACCOUNT OF A DARING, HISTORIC, ROBOTIC SPACE MISSION

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"My sojourn as an asteroid hunter has been deeply transformative, a voyage of internal and cosmic exploration.

The quest was not just about reaching celestial landmarks, but also about plumbing the depths of my own psyche to distill the quintessence of what it means to be an explorer.

Exploration, I've learned, is as much about the inward journey as the outward one, providing answers to age-old queries while generating new questions that propel us [as a species] even further. This pursuit, both personal and collective, transcends the confines of [both] time and space."

The above (in italics) comes from this extremely well-written and thrilling book by Dante Lauretta, Ph.D. He is a Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemisry at the University of Arizona's Lunar Planetary Laboratory. Lauretea was the Principal Investigator of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission and co-investigator of other asteroid missions. He is Director of the Arizona Asrobiology Center. An asteroid has been renamed "Lauretta" in recognition of his scientific contributions.

An asteroid is a planetoid or minor planet (neither a true planet nor a comet) that orbits within the inner Solar System. The size and shape of asteroids vary significantly ranging from a diameter of 1 km to a diameter of 1000 km. There are roughly one million known asteroids. The greatest number are found in the main asteroid belt that's between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. Near-Earth asteroids which cross Earth's orbit can threaten life on Earth due to their collision potential.

This book has it all. It's a memoir, an action-adventure story, a how-to manual (on creating a robotic space mission), and a science guide (specifically an introduction to solar system science). On top of all this, it's well-written and reads like a suspense thriller.

The OSIRIS-REx mission was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return robotic mission that visited and collected samples from Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid that's on a future collision course with Earth. (The "REx" in this mission's name stands for "Regolith Explorer.")

In this book, Lauretta as the then Principal Investigator provides an exciting, captivating portrayal of the joys and (many) challenges of this mission from an insider's or behind-the-scenes perspective. What a ride!

Finally, there are black and white pictures peppered throughout this book. They aid the main narrative.

In conclusion, this book gives readers a rare glimpse into the domain of scientific exploration!!

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(2024; prologue; 3 parts or 14 chapters with 5 interludes; 2 epilogues; main narrative 280 pages; acknowledgments; references; index; about the author)

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[Tawney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dante Lauretta has a wonderfully relaxed writing style that takes the reader through both his career and the Osiris-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu. He deals, in a succinct manner, with how he got to NASA and became one of the principals proposing an asteroid sample return mission. The bulk of the book, like many years of his life, is the story of that mission. It includes all the steps and twists and turns that never make the news. It’s fascinating. Lauretta does an excellent job of clearly explaining the bits of science and engineering needed to get to the asteroid, grab the sample and bring it back to earth.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for an Advanced Readers Copy.