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27 Oct 2023

NASA unable to open OSIRIS-REx sample yet

An estimated 70g of material has already been obtained from the sampler hardware, but the main bulk of the sample has yet to be accessed.

Astromaterials processors Mari Montoya, left, and Curtis Calva, right, use tools to collect asteroid particles from the base of the OSIRIS-REx science canister - NASA

OSIRIS-REx successfully returned a sample of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu to Earth on September 24, 2023 – a sample which scientists predict may offer evidence of how our Solar System formed, and how life on Earth began.

The initial aim of the sample-return mission was to collect 60g of rocks and dust, known as ‘regolith’, from Bennu, for current and future analysis.

NASA has reported that the curation team processing the sample has removed and collected 70.3g of regolith from just the sampler hardware, already surpassing the initial goal.

The sample processed so far includes the excess rocks and dust found on the outside of the sampler head, as well as a portion of the bulk sample from inside the head, which was accessed through the head’s mylar flap and extracted using tweezers and a scoop.

However, the majority of the main bulk of the sample remains within the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head, which made contact with Bennu’s surface in October 2020, to obtain the regolith material.

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