Good news, everyone!
First photos of the payload are out.
Bunch of bright CAIs apparent dven from a distance.
Minor snag opening TAGSAM (container of the sample). There’s a couple bolts that won’t budge with the tools they have available. OK, get a power wrench, right? Well, the tool has to be one they can get into the glovebox they’re keeping it in.
And probably can’t just drill the bolt because that will add bolt dust to the sample.
Brian
Right. And any tool they introduce has to be extremely clean. No bacteria or moisture. No lubricant, which rules out power tools.
Differential cooling might be worth a shot. Chill the bolt so that the metal contracts relative to the housing. The glovebox is already using a pure-nitrogen atmosphere, so a few drops of liquid nitrogen shouldn’t introduce anything untoward. (Warming the housing could also work, but there may be concerns that the heating could alter the material contained inside.)
“…the asteroid Bennu, which could offer key insights into the origins of our solar system”.
That’s what they always say. Can’t we have cool scientific projects without this bullshit justification?
It’s weird boilerplate the reporters use when they don’t actually understand the goals, I think. How about this instead? “Study of the samples recovered from Bennu could provide insight into the processes and potential yields involved in mining rubble-pile type asteroids, which may become a key resource in space-based habitation and industry.”
Now, that’s not a direct quote from any publication, but some are at least talking about the mining angle:
(Many of them seem to have the impractical notion that the mined materials would be sent down to the Earth’s surface, but at least they’re aware that the sample could inform development planning.)
What other reason do you think they would have for looking at an asteroid sample?
It’s always clues to the origin of the universe or solar system. By now that’s pretty yawn inducing. I have no idea what scientists have to do or say to get funding from tight fisted bureaucrats. I’ve always maintained that the guys who succeeded in getting the Hadron collider funded must’ve had persuasive abilities raised to the level of superpowers.
It is also absolutely 100% accurate.
Just upthread, I posted a pragmatic application that could be aided by information from this mission. Rubble-pile asteroids are likely to be the easiest kind to obtain material from, but we need to have a better idea of the composition and structure of such asteroids before we start designing retrieval drones or refining stations.
A small sample from Bennu is on display at the Smithsonian:
Looks like they finally got the container open:
No word yet on the total amount of sample.
A picture of the sample. They still haven’t weighed it.
Well they have. Just not all of it yet.
“The total amount of the sample weighed thus far is an estimated 8.8 ounces (250 grams) of rock and dust. With the bonus sample alone, NASA already surpassed its goal of bringing at least 2.12 ounces (60 grams) to Earth.”
…How could they have possibly not weighed the sample yet? Surely, they’d have done that before they even opened the canister.
Who knows how NASA handles these things? And don’t call me Shirley.
I’m assuming the error bars on their knowledge of the weight of the damaged container are larger than their estimate of the weight of the sample.
OK, finally got an official weight of the sample: 121.6 grams
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/02/15/nasa-announces-osiris-rex-bulk-sample-mass/