Asteroid Samples Successfully Sealed in Capsule to Return to Earth, NASA Says
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Asteroid samples successfully sealed in capsule to return to Earth, NASA says:
An estimated two pounds or more of rock and soil collected from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft have been successfully sealed up in a protective re-entry capsule for return to Earth in 2023, project managers said Thursday.
While detailed hands-on analysis cannot begin until the samples are returned, scientists have already gained insights into the flaky nature of Bennu's soil, or regolith, by watching how it behaved when the rocks and soil were collected on October 20.
And that is already feeding into discussions about how to possibly one day divert a threatening asteroid from a collision with Earth.
[...] Because mission managers decided not to attempt weighing the collected samples, they do not know for sure how much material was captured. But based on the amount visible to OSIRIS-REx's cameras, Lauretta said he is confident at last two pounds or[sic] rock and soil were scooped up as the TAGSAM pressed into and blow[sic] Bennu's surface.
"There was very little resistance to the spacecraft's downward motion from the asteroid regolith," he said. "And so we were continuing to penetrate and burrow underneath the subsurface of the asteroid while the TAGSAM gas was being injected into the regolith.
"Current assessments are that we penetrated a minimum of 24 centimeters (9.4 inches) ... and possibly as deep as over 48 centimeters (18.9 inches) with TAGSAM gas firing and collecting and driving material into the collection chamber during that entire time. So we are highly confident ... the TAGSAM was was[sic] full to capacity."
Even though a few "tens of grams" of material managed to float free of the sample collector before it could be stowed, Lauretta said he believes "we still have hundreds of grams of material in the sample collector head, probably over a kilogram easily."
"But of course, we have to wait till 2023 to open up the TAGSAM and be sure."
Also at Engadget (Thanks Runaway1956!)
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