NASA's OSIRIS-REx Successfully Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu (nasa.gov) 24
fahrbot-bot shares a press release from NASA: NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule (SRC) and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu. On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the mission team sent commands to the spacecraft, instructing it to close the capsule -- marking the end of one of the most challenging phases of the mission.
The mission team spent two days working around the clock to carry out the stowage procedure, with preparations for the stowage event beginning Oct. 24. The process to stow the sample is unique compared to other spacecraft operations and required the team's continuous oversight and input over the two-day period. For the spacecraft to proceed with each step in the stowage sequence, the team had to assess images and telemetry from the previous step to confirm the operation was successful and the spacecraft was ready to continue. Given that OSIRIS-REx is currently more than 205 million miles (330 million km) from Earth, this required the team to also work with a greater than 18.5-minute time delay for signals traveling in each direction.
Throughout the process, the OSIRIS-REx team continually assessed the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism's (TAGSAM) wrist alignment to ensure the collector head was being placed properly into the SRC. Additionally, the team inspected images to observe any material escaping from the collector head to confirm that no particles would hinder the stowage process. StowCam images of the stowage sequence show that a few particles escaped during the stowage procedure, but the team is confident that a plentiful amount of material remains inside of the head. By the evening of Oct. 27, the spacecraft's TAGSAM arm had placed the collector head into the SRC. The following morning, the OSIRIS-REx team verified that the collector head was thoroughly fastened into the capsule by performing a "backout check." This sequence commanded the TAGSAM arm to attempt to back out of the capsule -- which tugged on the collector head and ensured the latches are well secured.
The mission team spent two days working around the clock to carry out the stowage procedure, with preparations for the stowage event beginning Oct. 24. The process to stow the sample is unique compared to other spacecraft operations and required the team's continuous oversight and input over the two-day period. For the spacecraft to proceed with each step in the stowage sequence, the team had to assess images and telemetry from the previous step to confirm the operation was successful and the spacecraft was ready to continue. Given that OSIRIS-REx is currently more than 205 million miles (330 million km) from Earth, this required the team to also work with a greater than 18.5-minute time delay for signals traveling in each direction.
Throughout the process, the OSIRIS-REx team continually assessed the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism's (TAGSAM) wrist alignment to ensure the collector head was being placed properly into the SRC. Additionally, the team inspected images to observe any material escaping from the collector head to confirm that no particles would hinder the stowage process. StowCam images of the stowage sequence show that a few particles escaped during the stowage procedure, but the team is confident that a plentiful amount of material remains inside of the head. By the evening of Oct. 27, the spacecraft's TAGSAM arm had placed the collector head into the SRC. The following morning, the OSIRIS-REx team verified that the collector head was thoroughly fastened into the capsule by performing a "backout check." This sequence commanded the TAGSAM arm to attempt to back out of the capsule -- which tugged on the collector head and ensured the latches are well secured.
the right stuff (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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It's not just the large rocks that might have gotten dislodged - as can be seen in the video, every movement of the sampling drum was causing smaller material to be jostled free. Spinning the drum could well have flung most of the material free.
Re:the right stuff (Score:4, Interesting)
One thing we have already learned from this mission is that asteroids are looser than we expected. They appear to be big bundles of boulders, rubble, and gravel.
That is good news if one of them is on an earth-bound trajectory since they will be relatively easy to blow apart. A Bennu sized asteroid could be easily blown apart by a W88 warhead with a proximity fuse.
If the intercept is even a few months out, the dispersed debris would spread out enough that 99% would miss the earth.
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Can someone explain how this complements the Hayabusa2 mission? That mission will return 3 different samples, two from the surface and one sub-surface, later this year.
Is it just comparing with a different asteroid, or a different type of sample, or..?
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Can someone explain how this complements the Hayabusa2 mission? That mission will return 3 different samples, two from the surface and one sub-surface, later this year.
Is it just comparing with a different asteroid, or a different type of sample, or..?
It ended up being more or less the same type of sample, as OSIRIS-REx inadvertently pushed below the surface of the asteroid while collecting. Hayabusa 2 omitted their second surface sample.
Both 101955 Bennu and 162173 Ryugu are Apollo asteroids, which regularly cross Earth's orbit. They're all potential Earth impactors. Both were discovered by the US Air Force, NASA, and MIT during the LINEAR survey. They are at least theoretically somewhat different types. Bennu is C-type, while Ryugu is Cb-type, wit
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Thanks. Surprising, I figured they would have coordinated to not duplicate work.
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The goal was to collect at least 2 grams of samples and that would have been considered successful enough to bring back. They think about 60 grams was collected.
They think 400 grams was collected. See Iwastheone's own post down at the bottom.
The 400 grams is just a guess. The total capacity of the sampling head is nominally 2 kg of the surrogate that was used for testing. Now that we know the asteroid is much softer than expected, they'll be redoing their Earthside tests to get a better estimate. Considering it was overflowing, it could be well over 400 grams. Since the spin maneuver to compare angular momentum was omitted, we won't know exactly how much we go
Re: the right stuff (Score:1)
barn door stuck open, confident horses inside (Score:2)
When it makes it back to Earth in 2023
Re:barn door stuck open, too many horses inside (Score:2)
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Most expensive rocks (Score:2)
Given the $1.16 billion estimated total cost of the project, those 60 grams of rocks are officially the most expensive stuff we have had humanity. Once they reach back, they will also be the most expensive stuff on earth. It is roughly 30x the price of most expensive diamonds per gram, and 3x the total price of even the heavier (600gr) ones.
And we are hoping to have "space mining" soon?
Re:Most expensive rocks (Score:4, Funny)
It is roughly 30x the price of most expensive diamonds per gram, and 3x the total price of even the heavier (600gr) ones.
But not quite as expensive as inkjet ink.
Re:Most expensive rocks (Score:4, Informative)
Given the $1.16 billion estimated total cost of the project, those 60 grams of rocks are officially the most expensive stuff we have had humanity.
... I'm thinking Stardust [wikipedia.org] gives that a run on the money? It was cheaper, sure ($0.2 billion), but it returned a *total* mass of just 0.000000000000001g (source [psu.edu]). Which means that material is worth 10^16 more than OSIRIS-REx's material.
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Re: (Score:2)
Given the $1.16 billion estimated total cost of the project, those 60 grams of rocks are officially the most expensive stuff we have had humanity.
According to this article [science-to-go.com], Antimatter is about $62.5 trillion per gram.
Re: (Score:2)
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Given the $1.16 billion estimated total cost of the project, those 60 grams of rocks are officially the most expensive stuff we have had humanity.
Not sure where you got $1.16 billion. The probe itself is $800 million and the (overpriced) Atlas V that launched it cost the US taxpayer $184 million more. Also, the conservative estimate is they collected 400 grams of rocks. 60 was the minimum benchmark for the mission to be considered a success. They substantially exceeded that. The sample collection head has a total capacity of 2 kg, and considering they literally buried it into the asteroid during collection, they could have gotten considerably mo
Re: (Score:2)
The estimate is from https://www.wsj.com/articles/n... [wsj.com]
It seems to include ground operations as well. The staff is not working for free after all.
Was there an issue with testing prelaunch? (Score:2)
I'm curious about the design and why the mylar flap could be jammed open when collecting too much gravel. It sounds like a design flaw that was not picked up in testing? You would think that it could be tested in a 747 or just underwater.. Not to detract from the accomplishment just a bit baffled. Also not clear on whether there is a way to measure how much has been locked into storage now. Can they use a similar moment measurement even though the sample has been stowed?
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