{"id":12140,"date":"2020-10-29T18:09:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T10:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/asteroid-samples-sealed-in-osiris-rex-return-capsule\/"},"modified":"2020-10-29T18:09:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T10:09:56","slug":"asteroid-samples-sealed-in-osiris-rex-return-capsule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/asteroid-samples-sealed-in-osiris-rex-return-capsule\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid samples sealed in OSIRIS-REx return capsule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A camera aboard NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft showed the mission\u2019s sample return capsule closed its heat shield late Wednesday after a robotic arm placed asteroid samples inside for the trip back to Earth. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona\/Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A collection chamber that could contain more than 2 pounds of samples gathered from an asteroid in deep space last week has been sealed inside of a return capsule on NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to bring the extraterrestrial specimens back to Earth in 2023, officials announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

The sample return capsule closed its heat shield to seal up the asteroid specimens late Wednesday, completing steps to place the collection device at the end of a robotic arm inside the module that will protect the rock and soil during re-entry into Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Mission managers accelerated plans to stow the sample inside the return capsule after finding that asteroid particles were escaping from the collection chamber last week. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descended to a precise touch-and-go landing on asteroid Bennu Oct. 20 to gather the surface specimens.<\/p>\n

NASA officials announced Thursday that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft secured the asteroid material inside the sample return capsule more than 200 million miles (330 million kilometers) from Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were originally planning to do that stow operation next week, and we\u2019re here to announce today that we have successfully completed that operation,\u201d said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis achievement by OSIRIS-REx on behalf of NASA and the world has lifted our vision to the higher things we can achieve together, as teams and nations,\u201d said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement. \u201cTogether a team comprising industry, academia and international partners, and a talented and diverse team of NASA employees with all types of expertise, has put us on course to vastly increase our collection on Earth of samples from space.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamples like this are going to transform what we know about our universe and ourselves, which is at the base of all NASA\u2019s endeavors,\u201d Bridenstine said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Imagery of OSIRIS-REx\u2019s Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM, after the spacecraft\u2019s brief landing on Bennu showed the collection chamber overflowing with material scooped up from the asteroid. The TAGSAM\u2019s 11-foot-tall (3.4-meter) robotic arm contacted Bennu for about six seconds, and the device fired a bottle of compressed nitrogen gas to help blow soil and rock particles into the sampling system.<\/p>\n

It turned out the system gathered so much sample that five small rocks jammed into the opening of the collection chamber, preventing its mylar seal from closing. The images of the TAGSAM head last week showed particles escaping, and officials decided to skip plans to move the robotic arm and put the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft into a spin to measure the probe\u2019s moment of inertia, yielding an estimate of how much mass of sample the mission got from Bennu.<\/p>\n

Managers worried the robotic arm maneuvers required for the sample mass measurement would cause the TAGSAM head \u2014 about the size of a dinner plate \u2014 to lose more asteroid material. NASA officials instead elected to stow the sample head into the return capsule as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

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These images from NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft were taken Tuesday, Oct. 27, showing the mission\u2019s robotic arm placing the sampling head inside the capsule that will return the asteroid specimens to Earth in 2023. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona\/Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s $1 billion Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer mission launched Sept. 8, 2016, from Cape Canaveral aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. OSIRIS-REx\u2019s primary goal is to return asteroid samples to Earth for detailed analysis by scientists, who hope to uncover clues about the origins of the solar system.<\/p>\n

The mission requirement was for OSIRIS-REx to gather at least 60 grams, or 2.1 ounces, of asteroid material. Scientists said before the Oct. 20 touch and go landing that the spacecraft could collect much more, and it did.<\/p>\n

Data from the brief touchdown on the asteroid indicated the spacecraft\u2019s robotic arm sunk up to 19 inches (48 centimeters) into the Bennu\u2019s soft surface.<\/p>\n

Diamond-shaped asteroid Bennu measures about a third of a mile wide and rotates once on its axis every 4.3 hours. Surveys of the asteroid indicate it is rich in carbon and hydrated minerals, two key building blocks of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am extremely happy with the sample that we\u2019ve collected, and that we intend to bring back to the Earth in September of 2023,\u201d said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx\u2019s principal investigator from the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n

Lauretta said the science team believes it is highly likely the TAGSAM head was at full capacity \u2014 about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) \u2014 with asteroid specimens when the spacecraft fired thrusters to begin backing away from Bennu last week. Scientists believe the sampling system lost \u201ctens of grams\u201d of asteroid material before the TAGSAM head was secured into the sample return capsule Wednesday, Lauretta said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we still have hundreds of grams of material in the sample collector head, probably over a kilogram (2.2 pounds easily,\u201d Lauretta said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s well above the mission\u2019s success requirement to bring home 60 grams of asteroid material.<\/p>\n

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Captured by the spacecraft\u2019s SamCam camera on Oct. 22, 2020, this series of three images shows that the sampler head on NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is full of rocks and dust collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. They show also that some of these particles are slowly escaping the sampler head. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ground teams from Lockheed Martin, which built and operates the spacecraft for NASA, are studying ways to produce a rough estimate of the mass of the asteroid sample. Because managers bypassed the opportunity for a more refined mass estimate, scientists will not know exactly much Bennu material is on-board OSIRIS-REx until the sample return capsule lands on Earth in 2023.<\/p>\n

The closure of the sample return capsule\u2019s lid late Wednesday means the mission will not lose any more asteroid samples.<\/p>\n

Engineers and scientists at Lockheed Martin\u2019s control center near Denver methodically guided OSIRIS-REx through carefully choreographed procedures to place the TAGSAM head into the return capsule.<\/p>\n

The sample head was seated into the capsule\u2019s capture ring Tuesday. Then ground controllers sent commands for the robotic arm pull on the sample head to ensure its latches were well secured.<\/p>\n

Telemetry from the spacecraft confirmed the sample head is latched in place, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

The next step activated a \u201ctube cutter\u201d to cut lines leading from the sampling device\u2019s nitrogen gas bottles, and fired a separation bolt to sever the TAGSAM head from the robotic arm. Once the sample head was cut from the arm, ground teams sent commands to close the heat shield on the sample return capsule to seal it for the journey back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Two latches engaged to firmly close the lid on the heat shield.<\/p>\n

Unlike OSIRIS-REx\u2019s touch and go landing \u2014 which the spacecraft executed autonomously \u2014 the sample stow procedure involved numerous starts and stops, allowing engineers to receive imagery and assess how the operation is going at each major step.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we\u2019re taking our time is we don\u2019t want to lose those particles,\u201d said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx\u2019s project scientist at Goddard. \u201cI like to think of every speck we see (escaping) as someone\u2019s PhD being lost. There\u2019s so much information that\u2019s going away.\u201d<\/p>\n