Late last Friday, local time, NASA officials stated that earlier that week, the agency’s OSIRIS-Rex asteroid probe successfully grabbed samples from the surface of “Bennu”. However, it may be that too much material was collected that the lid of the sample box could not be closed properly, causing some precious asteroid dust and rocks to be thrown out .
Now NASA is facing an arduous task, that is, how to preserve the collected materials without leaking large amounts of materials . This delicate process becomes more difficult because the spacecraft is in a weightless environment about 200 million miles (320 million kilometers) away.
Last Tuesday, the OSIRIS-Rex asteroid probe manipulator designed by Lockheed Martin touched the surface of the asteroid “Bennu” and sprayed the nitrogen it carried to stir the gravel and dust on the surface of the asteroid. Capture with a collection device.
Picture: This photo shows the head of the OSIRIS-Rex asteroid probe sampler covered with rocks and dust collected from the surface of “Bennu”
However, the injection of nitrogen seemed to arouse too much grit and dust on the surface of the asteroid, so that some grit and dust were trapped in the device, leaving the lid open. Despite this, NASA officials said that they believe that the detector has collected enough samples, far exceeding the originally planned 60 grams of material, and are confident that the cover of the collection device will be closed and not too much material will be thrown.
Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and the main investigator of the mission, said: “I am very confident that this (operation) is a success. The probe collected a lot of material.” There are “hundreds of grams of substance, maybe even more.” What I am most worried about now is that the collected samples are being thrown away. Some of the biggest particles keep this lid from closing. “
NASA plans to store the collection equipment in the return capsule as early as this Tuesday, instead of measuring the amount of material collected as originally planned. At the same time, NASA will control the spacecraft and collection equipment to maintain as stable as possible, worrying that any unnecessary movement will cause more material to be thrown out.
Loretta said: “When I saw these images, I was very worried. I think the most prudent approach at the moment is to safely store what we already have and minimize future losses.”
But until the probe returns to Earth in 2023, scientists will not know how much asteroid matter has been collected.
He said: “We have to wait until the detector returns home to know exactly how much reserves we have. You can imagine this is difficult.” “But the good news is that we did see a lot of samples collected, so our current situation is The sample is more than 60 grams needed.”
This is the first time that NASA has collected samples from an asteroid. There are an estimated 1 million asteroids similar to “Bennu” in the entire solar system. Scientists believe that these substances can reveal how the universe was formed and how water will disappear from the earth.
The asteroid “Bennu” has a history of more than 4.5 billion years. The entire volume is as large as the Empire State Building in New York, USA. It looks like a giant walnut. Scientists believe that the clay of “Bennu” contains carbon and water.
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