NASA’s Johnson Center astromaterials team has completed dismantling the OSIRIS-REx mission container to reveal the remainder of the Bennu asteroid sample inside.
Two of the latches on the container’s head could not be removed during the first sample collection operation, which was organized after the device arrived on Earth in September. New tools had to be made to remove them, a process that was completed on January 10details Europe Press.
Once the head was removed, the team was able to observe the material inside, which will be collected in a painstaking process before being weighed, packaged and stored in the Goddard Center’s astromaterials collection.
The remaining sample material includes dust and rocks up to about one centimeter in size. The final mass of the sample will be determined in the coming weeks. Members of the curation team had already collected 70.3 grams of asteroid material from the sample hardware before the lid was removed, exceeding the agency’s goal of returning at least 60 grams to Earth, NASA reports.
The curatorial team will publish a catalog of all Bennu samples later this year, allowing scientists and institutions around the world to submit research or exhibition applications.
Source: Eluniverso
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