Asteroid samples escaping from jammed spacecraft
cape canaveral (florida) — A Nasa spacecraft is stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s jammed open and precious particles are drifting away in space, scientists said.
Scientists announced the news three days after the spacecraft named Osiris-Rex briefly touched asteroid Bennu, Nasa’s first attempt at such a mission.
The mission’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, said Tuesday’s operation 200 million miles away collected far more material than expected for return to Earth — in the hundreds of grammes. The sample container on the end of the robot arm penetrated so deeply into the asteroid and with such force, however, that rocks got sucked in and became wedged around the rim of the lid.
Scientists estimate the sampler pressed as much as 19 inches into the rough, crumbly, black terrain. “We’re almost a victim of our own success here,” Lauretta said.
Lauretta said there is nothing flight controllers can do to clear the obstructions and prevent more bits of Bennu from escaping, other than to get the samples into their return capsule as soon as possible.
So, the flight team was scrambling to put the sample container into the capsule as early as Tuesday — much sooner than planned — for the long trip home. “Time is of the essence,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, chief of Nasa’s science missions.
This is Nasa’s first asteroid sample-return mission. Bennu was chosen because its carbon-rich material is believed to hold the preserved building blocks of our solar system. Getting pieces from this cosmic time capsule could help scientists better understand how the planets formed billions of years ago and how life originated on Earth. —
There is nothing flight controllers can do to clear the obstructions and prevent more bits of Bennu from escaping. dante lauretta
The mission’s lead scientist