{"id":12142,"date":"2020-10-28T17:54:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T09:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/osiris-rex-begins-stowing-asteroid-sample-into-return-capsule\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:54:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T09:54:42","slug":"osiris-rex-begins-stowing-asteroid-sample-into-return-capsule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/osiris-rex-begins-stowing-asteroid-sample-into-return-capsule\/","title":{"rendered":"OSIRIS-REx begins stowing asteroid sample into return capsule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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

Working under close supervision from ground controllers more than 200 million miles away, the robotic arm on NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has begun placing specimens collected from an asteroid last week into a return capsule to bring the material back to Earth in 2023, officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Images beamed back by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft this week show the mission\u2019s Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM, arm has placed its sample collection head inside the return capsule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese spectacular images taken by OSIRIS-REx show how the team has maneuvered the spacecraft arm to place the sample of asteroid Bennu into the capsule that will return to Earth,\u201d tweeted Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s science mission directorate. \u201cNext, the team will remove the arm from the sampler head & close the capsule.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sample head seen in the images is about the diameter of a dinner plate.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched down on asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20 for six seconds, long enough to fire a bottle of compressed nitrogen gas to help blow soil and rock particles into a collection chamber.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

Imagery downlinked from OSIRIS-REx last week showed samples leaking out of the the TAGSAM head. At least five small rocks jammed into the opening of the sample collection chamber, preventing its mylar seal from closing.<\/p>\n

Data from the touch and go landing indicated the spacecraft\u2019s 11-foot-long (3.4-meter) 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

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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

\u201cWhen the head is buried below the surface before the gas discharges, is the ideal circumstance to collect the maximum amount of material,\u201d said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx\u2019s project scientist, in a presentation Tuesday to the Maryland Space Business Roundtable. \u201cThe TAGSAM is pre-loaded with approximately a liter of regolith before the gas fires to force more in. So this was beyond our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The images last week showed the sample head was overflowing with asteroid material, perhaps approaching the canister\u2019s capacity of around 4.4 pounds, or 2 kilograms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe we have well above our requirement of 60 grams, probably closer to the hundreds or thousands of grams level,\u201d Dworkin said.<\/p>\n

Mission managers planned to extend the robotic arm and put OSIRIS-REx in a spin last weekend to measure the spacecraft\u2019s moment of inertia, yielding an estimate of the sample mass collected from Bennu.<\/p>\n

But movements of the robotic arm were causing more specimens to leak out of the sample collection chamber. With ample evidence that OSIRIS-REx had gathered more than the required sample mass, NASA officials directed ground teams to begin stowing the material inside the spacecraft\u2019s return capsule sooner than planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe estimate that we are losing grams to tens of grams when we maneuver the arm around,\u201d Dworkin said Tuesday. \u201cInterestingly, we\u2019re losing more material than the combined total collection of all sample return missions, except for those to the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the loose asteroid material leaking from the collection chamber, Dworkin said he did not expect any problems stowing the TAGSAM head inside the 2.6-foot-wide (80-centimeter) return capsule.<\/p>\n

After the opening the sample return carrier\u2019s lid, ground teams sent commands for the robotic arm to place the TAGSAM head onto a capture ring inside the capsule.<\/p>\n

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Captured on Oct. 20 during the OSIRIS-REx mission\u2019s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event, this series of two images shows the SamCam imager\u2019s field of view at the moment before and after the NASA spacecraft touched down on asteroid Bennu\u2019s surface. Credits: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA said Wednesday that the sample head was seated into the capsule\u2019s capture ring. Then ground controllers at a Lockheed Martin facility near Denver 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 will involve activating a \u201ctube cutter\u201d to cut lines leading from the sampling device\u2019s nitrogen gas bottles, and fire a separation bolt to sever the TAGSAM head from the robotic arm. Those operations were scheduled to be commanded by ground teams as soon as Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Once the sample head is cut from the arm, ground teams will send commands to close the heat shield on the sample return capsule to seal it for the journey back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Unlike OSIRIS-REx\u2019s touch and go landing \u2014 which the spacecraft executed autonomously \u2014 the sample stow procedure involves 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 Dworkin said. \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

OSIRIS-REx has been slowly backing away from Bennu since the touch and go landing Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

In March, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters begin the trip back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx will release the sample return capsule for a parachute-assisted landing at the Utah Test and Training Range on Sept. 24, 2023.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Working under close supervision from ground controllers more than 200 million miles away, the robotic arm on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1519,1526,584,880,1790,472,190,2020],"class_list":["post-12142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroids","tag-bennu","tag-canada","tag-canadian-space-agency","tag-goddard-space-flight-center","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-nasa","tag-new-frontiers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}