Earth Return & Sample Science Options

[stevesliva]

If they have to order custom tools just to open those two screws, I'm not surprised it's taking this long. Supply chains, etc. There's probably faster ways to get in, but they don't want to take any risks.

As mcaplinger's (thank you) Nature summary says:

The screwdrivers that NASA is building to free the remaining rocks and dust will need to be made from materials that won’t contaminate the samples

Not only metal shavings, but probably simply making sure they're inert away from the business end. I have to imagine that glovebox has some sort of atmospheric sampling for when that container opens. Even if not... a lot of diligence to go through.

Also, I didn't mean to imply caginess from NASA, just quiet. Prob the Oct 20 was candid enough that I saw the "2 fastener" statement at about that time and presumed it would be a minor thing. Or I didn't read closely. Either way I was curious on the recent lack of news.

[mcaplinger]

If they have to order custom tools just to open those two screws, I'm not surprised it's taking this long.

Based on the photos, the screws on the periphery look like Phillips Torq-set ® screw heads. https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/ Not what I would have used, but I'm sure this was carefully considered.

I'd love to know how they've tried to remove these, what state the screw heads are currently in, what state the bits they were using are currently in, and what they are actually planning to do next. Are they making new bits, or making a new wrench, or both?

Having been involved in projects that busted off a screw head in a piece of flight hardware a time or two (never personally, thank goodness) if you thought you might get contamination from the bit, you'll get even more when you have to drill into the screw head to remove it.

[added because I can't resist: if the Scoop-VII capsule in The Andromeda Strain had been this hard to open, the movie would have been much shorter. ]

[Brian Swift]

[added because I can't resist: if the Scoop-VII capsule in The Andromeda Strain had been this hard to open, the movie would have been much shorter. ]

I was somewhat surprised to not see more The Andromeda Strain references in OSIRIS-REx media coverage.

[centsworth_II]

NASA Finally Removes Last Two Fasteners To Access Historic Bennu Asteroid Sample

https://www.iflscience.com/nasa-finally-rem...id-sample-72422

From Nasa :
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/1...g-bennu-sample/

[Marcin600]

NASA Finally Removes Last Two Fasteners To Access Historic Bennu Asteroid Sample

https://www.iflscience.com/nasa-finally-rem...id-sample-72422

From Nasa :
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/1...g-bennu-sample/

Adding: Here is partial video of some of these activities: https://images.nasa.gov/details/OSIRIS-REx%...mple%20Curation

[Decepticon]

I thought they would show them opening it.

[stevesliva]

Image of it open:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-os...steroid-sample/

(I started the thread about this mission proposal in 2010... time flies. And in this case, really, this seems fast.)

As for the image... hard for me to tell what I'm looking at, whether the center is raised/depressed/open/closed etc. But I guess it's been 13.5 years so I can wait a bit more.

Looks like this with the notorious fasteners removed:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-dim..._fig1_328494748

... but the 'round metal collar' is still covering the areas where most of the sample was supposed to accumulate? Hard to tell.

[mcaplinger]

As for the image... hard for me to tell what I'm looking at, whether the center is raised/depressed/open/closed etc.

It's raised.

Maybe it'll be helpful to review https://www.asteroidmission.org/asteroid-op...ns/tagsam_head/

I think most of the material you're seeing is overflow from the collection area proper.

[StargazeInWonder]

In case the comparison isn't in people's minds, it's interesting to look at the samples and compare them to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites already in possession; the Allende meteorites are a good example. In theory, this is likely very similar stuff, except for the single striking difference in how they were collected: In the one case, pretty gently, and in the other case, with impacts, atmospheric entry, and unconstrained risk of contamination. Even just the surface texture of the OR samples is intriguing; there is no part of a meteorite that preserves that aspect of the original material. As for the interior, that could be arbitrarily close to the same. I look forward to seeing what science follows.

[Marcin600]

A few cut out frames from the released picture with interesting examples of Bennu samples that caught my attention.

In frame 1-2:
A and B - two completely different textures of "pebbles": smooth (A) and "brecciated" ( B )
C - areas of rock with a slightly brownish-reddish tint

In the remaining frames 3-7: bright, whitish minerals clearly visible


Original picture: https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/jsc202...006057~orig.jpg
Credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[David Wright]

I looked at this too, but bumped up the saturation the make the colors more prominent.

The 'purple cast' is not uniform so can't be easily removed, but it's probably some sort of error in taking this photo.

[mcaplinger]

Original picture: https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/jsc202...006057~orig.jpg
Credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

It's interesting that if you look at the metadata of this image, you see

CODE

Advanced Curation Systematic Imaging Documentation for OSIRIS-REX Sample Return
Mission Physical Examination
FUJIFILM GFX100S
Adobe Photoshop 25.3 (Windows)
2024:01:18 11:13:59
Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold
Stacked from 12 images. Method=B (R=8,S=4)

so this looks like it was taken with a Fuji GFX100S in 7:6 L mode and then focus merged. https://fujifilm-x.com/en-us/products/camer...-image-quality/

[StargazeInWonder]

I think it's hard to have intuitions about the phenomena that might have acted on the surfaces of this stuff. Was some of this exposed to various forms of temperature and radiation for very, very long durations of time? Are there sides of a pebble that faced outward vs. inward? We've basically never seen anything like this up-close before even if lots of meteorites were very similar aside from the atmospheric entry.

[Marcin600]

In my opinion the formation of impact breccias as a result of meteorite impacts may be one of the few "geological" rock-forming processes that occur on Bennu "currently". Plus, of course, thermal and cosmic erosion as a result of temperature changes and the impact of cosmic (mainly solar) radiation.

But we must remember that there is a strong possibility that "present-day" Bennu may be a collection of debris created after a catastrophic collision and recombined. This means that different types of rocks on the surface may come from, for example, different regions of the parent body (or even from two or more different bodies), and the parent body could have been much larger, and "more interesting" geological processes could have occurred on it, e.g. transformation of minerals under the influence of water etc.

And finally, among the "pebbles" on the surface there may be fragments of "recent" meteorites from other objects...

This all gives some potential for a certain variety of rocks on Bennu's current surface...


EDIT: In the case of meteorites falling on Earth, we are usually dealing with single "samples" of individual rocks. But even in these meteorites, you can often see different rock lithologies (e.g. solid rock and breccia) next to each other

Unfortunately, the "disadvantage" of the samples delivered from Bennu by OSIRIS-REx is that they come from only one small point on the asteroid.

[Explorer1]

Mass of 121.6 grams (double the mission expectations)!

Congratulations!