2 Months Later, NASA Is Still Struggling To Open Its Asteroid Sample Container – News18

NASA’s mission to unravel the secrets of the solar system has hit an unexpected snag. Two months after obtaining a crucial sample from an asteroid, the space agency finds itself grappling with a perplexing setback—it can’t open the canister containing the precious extraterrestrial material.

On September 24, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully returned to Earth with a special payload—a canister containing rocks and dust collected from the surface of asteroid Bennu.

The significance of these space rocks is profound, as they are believed to harbour clues to the origin of the solar system and could potentially answer crucial questions about Earth’s formation. But NASA has hit a roadblock in accessing the payload.

The Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), designed to secure the asteroid sample, has proven to be a formidable challenge for NASA scientists and engineers. After several months of preparation and anticipation, the team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston faced an unexpected hurdle when attempting to unlock the TAGSAM.

NASA officially disclosed the issue on October 20, revealing that two of the 35 fasteners on the TAGSAM head could not be removed with the current tools approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx glovebox. The space agency, in its first-ever attempt to retrieve a sample from an asteroid in space, now finds itself grappling with the intricate mechanics of the TAGSAM.

The team has been working to troubleshoot the problem, altering their approach to opening the TAGSAM head. Despite multiple attempts, the fasteners resistant to the current tools have thwarted their efforts. The constraints of the OSIRIS-REx glovebox, designed to prevent contamination, have further complicated the process, as only tools that fit within the glovebox can be employed.

Despite these challenges, NASA has managed to access a portion of the sample, obtaining 70.3 grams of rocks and dust from both the outside and inside of the TAGSAM head. This surpasses the initial goal of collecting 60 grams and has already provided valuable insights into the composition of the asteroid.

Early analyses of the sample have revealed an abundance of carbon and water molecules, supporting the hypothesis that the building blocks of life may have reached Earth via asteroids. However, crucial portions of the sample, estimated to be around 250 grams of dust and rock, remain inaccessible within the canister.

NASA temporarily halted its attempts to open the canister in November, shifting its focus to developing new tools that can overcome the resistance posed by the TAGSAM fasteners.