REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — After months of anticipation, the OSIRIS-REx mission NASA has achieved an important milestone by successfully accessing asteroid material, which the probe collected during its journey of billions of miles.
According to a NASA statement, on January 10 a group of NASA technicians finally removed two stuck fasteners that were locking the precious cargo, allowing scientists unprecedented access to the asteroid’s material.
Reported Space, Thursday (25/1/2024), the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made history in September 2023 when the first United States (US) mission returned asteroid samples to Earth. The samples were safely stored in the return capsule, very close by but out of reach because two fasteners jammed so the limited number of approved tools could not be opened by the team.
Although 70.3 grams of material was accessed from outside the sample head, known as the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), most of the asteroid sample material was still trapped inside the capsule.
According to NASA’s statement, most of the asteroid material is now accessible after two of the 35 fasteners on TAGSAM that cannot be removed using tools, which are approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx sample container, were finally freed.
Once the two fasteners are finally removed, the astromaterials curation team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas will proceed to disassemble the TAGSAM head to access the remaining asteroid material. This material includes dust and stones up to about one centimeter in size. The final mass of the sample will be determined in the coming weeks.
NASA plans to release a catalog of all Bennu samples later this year, which will allow scientists and institutions around the world to submit research or exhibition requests, opening new avenues for scientific exploration.
The asteroid Bennu, believed to be a primitive space rock dating from the early days of our solar system, has the potential to provide valuable insight into the formation and evolution of celestial bodies. Studying samples collected from its surface could reveal important clues about our cosmic environment, expanding our understanding of the mysteries of the universe.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that collected the samples, meanwhile, has changed name and mission. Now called OSIRIS-APEX, the probe is on a five-year journey to study the asteroid Apophis as it approaches our planet. The asteroid is named after the ancient Egyptian god of chaos.
2024-01-25 04:07:59
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