A month ago, a NASA capsule landed on Earth carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu, where the OSIRIS-REx probe was sent in 2016. The asteroid samples were hermetically packaged to protect them from Earth’s air, and access to them was regulated in a sterile box. As NASA admits, they are still unable to open the capsule’s main sampler, but even the material accidentally entering the capsule is enough for Benn to successfully complete the mission.

NASA scientists reported that 70.3 g of material from the surface of asteroid Bennu was found inside the capsule and partially in the head area of ​​the sampling mechanism before the sampler was fully deployed. According to the goals of the OSIRIS-REx mission, delivering 60 grams of asteroid material to Earth will be considered successful.

After dissection of the capsule, it turned out that its inner surface was covered with black powder and small granules, which scientists even removed from under the Mylar shell in the capsule. The surface of asteroid Bennu turned out to be much looser than NASA engineers expected.

The sampler in the form of an elongated manipulator was supposed to hit its surface and eject some dust and stones, which would be drawn into the capsule by the gas, but as a result it knocked out such a fountain of dust and Bennu matter. from the surface where it almost caused an accident – right up to the jamming of the capsule closing mechanism, and without this it would not have been possible to deliver the samples to Earth.

Experts hastily ordered the probe to be withdrawn from the asteroid, which prevented the mechanism from jamming. The only thing scientists took out of the capsule today were extras they didn’t trust. The main treasure is supposed to be stored in the sampler, but so far there has been a snag with its dismantling: 2 of the 35 fixing screws holding the sampler cover still cannot be removed. For this, the tools previously placed in a sterile glove compartment did not help to cope with this task. NASA is looking for an opportunity to remove the remaining screws while storing the capsule in a sealed Teflon bag so that material from the asteroid does not come into contact with the nitrogen atmosphere inside the box.

Preliminary work on the samples showed that they were rich in water and carbon. This means that at the beginning of the formation of the Solar System, space was rich in those substances that are most important for the origin of biological life. The more samples the NASA probe returns, the more comprehensively our system’s history will be examined. Source