NASA spacecraft brings back more asteroid samples than ever

NASA announced on February 15 that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft brought 121.6 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu back to Earth, double the initial request.

Eight sample trays containing materials from the asteroid Bennu. Photo: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold — Eight sample trays containing materials from the asteroid Bennu. Photo: *NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold*

OSIRIS-Rex launched in 2016, arrived at the asteroid Bennu in 2018, collected samples in 2020, and returned to Earth in September 2023. Experts needed at least 60 grams of material to meet the mission's scientific goals. But the mass of the sample that OSIRIS-Rex brought back exceeded that number before NASA had even fully opened the sample container called Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM).

TAGSAM was dropped by a spacecraft in the Utah desert, then transported to NASA's Johnson Space Center, where scientists opened the canister in a special clean room. They wanted to keep it away from any contamination on Earth.

In October 2023, scientists opened the large TAGSAM canister and collected 70.3 grams of dust and rock. They were unable to open TAGSAM to collect the samples inside because two of the locking pins were jammed, so they had to find ways to develop and test new tools that would not introduce contaminants.

The team successfully opened TAGSAM in January. The remaining asteroid sample was removed and carefully poured into containers. This dumping yielded 51.2 grams of sample. Combined with the 70.3 grams collected earlier and additional particles collected outside the dumping process, the total mass of the Bennu sample came to 121.6 grams. This is the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space and double the mission requirement.

NASA will preserve at least 70 percent of the sample at the Johnson Space Center for further study by scientists around the world. From the Johnson Space Center archives, the Bennu sample will be packaged and distributed to researchers for analysis. During the OSIRIS-Rex mission, a team of more than 200 international scientists will study the sample’s properties. This team includes experts from several U.S. research institutions, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and other organizations.

Thu Thao (According to Phys )

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