At last! NASA finally removes lid off Bennu asteroid capsule after two screws got stuck – more than three months since the precious cargo returned to Earth

It’s been several months, but NASA finally removed the lid from the capsule that returned the asteroid Bennu to Earth.

NASA engineers removed two metal fasteners from the TAGSAM robotic arm that were holding the lid together and trapping the precious cargo inside.

Now the task of analyzing the entire 250 g sample can begin for clues about the history of the solar system.

In October 2020, the robotic arm aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft caught a handful of the asteroid Bennu.

Space fans rejoiced in September last year when the spacecraft finally returned to Earth, marking the end of the $1.16 billion mission, one of NASA’s most ambitious.

Timelapse of the 5-minute period on October 20, 2020 when the arm took the sample from Bennu, an asteroid 200 million miles away.

According to Eileen Stansbery, division chief of ARES (Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, new tools had to be designed to remove the last two screws and open the capsule.

‘Our engineers and scientists have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for months to not only process the more than 70 grams of material we were previously able to access, but also to design, develop and test new tools that allowed us to overcome this obstacle. ‘ she said.

‘The innovation and dedication of this team has been remarkable.

“We are all excited to see the remaining treasure that OSIRIS-REx holds.”

Since the sample’s triumphant return to Earth in September, NASA has only managed to open the capsule’s top lid, which revealed a curious black powder.

However, Bennu’s handful of rocks were hidden in another smaller component of the interior, which was eventually opened.

The precious cargo is estimated to be 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams of rock material, about half of what would be found in an average-sized box of cereal.

But NASA believes it will be enough to reveal secrets about the composition of asteroids and “help us better understand the types of asteroids that could threaten Earth.”

The pebbles and dust from Bennu, which could hit Earth in 2182, represent the biggest haul from beyond the Moon.

It was in September 2016 that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and did not arrive at Bennu until December 2018.

After mapping the asteroid for almost two years, it collected a sample from the surface on October 20, 2020 before Returning home: a round trip of 3.86 billion miles..

Although a straight-line path between Earth and the asteroid is 200 million miles, the total distance traveled by the spacecraft was much greater because it required a much longer, more winding path that required several maneuvers.

The ship containing the precious sample landed on a remote stretch of military terrain in the western state of Utah on September 24.

Two hours after landing, the capsule was inside a temporary clean room at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range, having been hoisted there by helicopter.

It was then flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where experts in protective suits opened the initial lid and found black dust.

The scientists had planned to completely disassemble the capsule and extract and weigh the sample, before backing off with two of the 35 fasteners.

Later this spring, the curation team will publish a catalog of the OSIRIS-REx samples, which will be available to the global scientific community.