The OSIRIS - REx curation squad is a winner of the2024 Gizmodo Science Fairfor safeguarding pristine sample distribution of an asteroid delivered to Earth . When two fasteners got stick on the canister check pieces of asteroid Bennu , NASA ’s specialized team develop fresh tool to get at the sample distribution . Their meticulous body of work ensured that planetary contaminants did n’t spoil the ancient rock , conserve its embedded clues to the solar organization ’s bloodline .
The question
Can scientist find grounds for the edifice pulley block of lifetime preserved within asteroid sample , without Earthly contaminant have in the way ?
The results
The OSIRIS - REx mission launched in September 2016 and reached a dear - solid ground asteroid telephone Bennu in December 2018 . After nearly two year of observations , the spacecraft land on the asteroid andsnagged a sampling from its surface . Collecting bits of an asteroid was a complex undertaking , but other challenges wait .
The truly tedious oeuvre began in September 2023 , when a canister containing rock and debris from the asteroid made a parachute - attend to landing place in the Utah desert . Ground teams moved swiftly to call back it and transport it to a clean elbow room , where it was connected to a uninterrupted flow of nitrogen . The nitrogen purge , as scientists call it , is design to prevent Earthly contaminant fix anywhere near the pieces of Bennu , ensuring the sample distribution remains virginal for scientific analysis .
There was one job , however : The TAGSAM head ( Touch - and - Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism ) , where the bulk of the asteroid sample is stored , was stuck . The charge returned to Earth with about 250 grams of asteroid , plus another70 grams in bonus materialfound out of doors of the sample distribution container . However , two of the 35 fasteners on the TAGSAM head could not be removedwith the pre - approved tools for use in the OSIRIS - king glovebox , blocking commission squad from accessing the wanted stuff inside .
A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector.Photo: NASA/Keegan Barber
In November 2023 , the curation team began developing new tools that could outfit inside the specialised glovebox ; it took two months , butthe engineers were finally able to remove two pesky fastenersfrom the sampler mind with the helper of the new tools .
Why they did it
This was NASA ’s first mission to retrieve sampling from an asteroid in space . The goal was to return material untouched by Earth ’s atmosphere . That ’s why , once the asteroid sample attain Earth , safeguarding it became the mission ’s top precedency .
“ It ’s a two - phase feeler ; as far as retrieve the sampling , there ’s the procedure for disassembling the TAGSAM , which is a very complicated mechanism , and the other approach is have indisputable you have the proper tools and the correct equipment to assist you do that , ” said Salvador Martinez , OSIRIS - REx lead technology development engineer . “ Our engineering team was looking at the process and then grow any ironware … make epitome , get through testing and judge how things worked , making certain that we gave them all the equipment that we think was needed . ”
“ Before the sample have here , you prepare as much as you perhaps can , and as we screw , things follow back from space and there ’s always a huge stage of uncertainty with some of these thing , ” he sum up .
© Vicky Leta/Gizmodo
meteorite that descend to Earth on their own are pollute by the mental process , and it becomes unvoiced to trace their source in the vast cosmea . With the Bennu sample , scientists make an chance to examine a space rock-and-roll as though it was still out there . That ’s where the curation squad follow in .
“ Our principal destination is protecting the sample , ” said Nicole Lunning , lead OSIRIS - REx sample curator . “ A lot of what we did in our dry run for develop a procedure of how we were move to take the TAGSAM asunder was focused on protecting the sampling that was inside of it , so that we could belittle that these rocks might be transgress or spilled . ”
It ’s easy to come up with dissimilar tools to untie up the faulty fasteners , but the trick is doing it without menace the integrity of the sampling .
Photo: NASA/Keegan Barber
“ That was actually fairly complicated , because I know from the exterior , a peck of people see the TAGSAM school principal and it ’s not that hard to take aside if you do n’t care about spilling what ’s inside or protecting what ’s inside , ” Lunning said . “ And that ’s the really big challenge for us . ”
Why they’re a winner
Prior to the sample distribution touchdown , the curation squad give-up the ghost through hundreds of rehearsals . Team member had been disquieted about the possibility of a stuck sample question and tried to prepare for it as much as possible . Since this had never been done before , however , there were so many unknown .
Bennu is a lowly , near - world asteroid that makes a close pass to Earth every six years or so . The asteroid may have break off from a much tumid atomic number 6 - rich blank John Rock about 700 million to 2 billion geezerhood ago and drifted much closer to Earth since then . The $ 1.16 billion OSIRIS - male monarch mission was super complicated from the get - go , and it had now come down to two fastening . The curation team task with retrieving the sample was confront with an immense challenge : get the Bennu bits out without compromise the whole commission .
Scientists do an early analysis of the asteroid sample and find anabundance of carbon paper and piss molecule , supporting the theory that the edifice blocks of life may have made their mode to Earth via space rock impacts . There ’s still enough more of Bennu to be analyzed .
What’s next
“ After we got those fastener removed , it was a little piece like sentence traveling back to where we expected to have been in recent October , ” Lunning said . “ We had all this equipment and other things stockpiled and cleaned that had been sit ready , and so we sort of beat back on the track that we ’re expecting to be on . ”
The returned asteroid firearm are being divided among a sample analysis team of 230 spherical scientists for a recondite nose dive into Bennu ’s musical composition .
Now that the sampling is in the hands of the processing squad , the curation team can await back at the process and sample to work out out on the button why those fixing were stuck . The ill-famed holdfast are part of the charge ’s return escape computer hardware collection , and they ’ll service as a elbow room to take the charge for succeeding applications .
The team
Nicole Lunning , OSIRIS - REx curator at Johnson Space Center ; Kevin Righter , OSIRIS - REx lieutenant curation lead ; Christopher Snead , deputy sample curator at Johnson Space Center ; Kimberly Allums , curation project lead story for OSIRIS - king and the section managing director for curation ; Melissa Rodriguez , contractor lead for NASA ’s astromaterials aggregation ; Rachel Funk , OSIRIS - REx lab lede processor ; Salvador Martinez , lead astromaterials curation engineer for OSIRIS - REx ; Neftali Hernandez , astromaterials curation applied scientist for OSIRIS - king ; Gabriel Lugo , astromaterials curation locomotive engineer for OSIRIS - king ; Wayland Connelly , astromaterials curation railroad engineer ; Julia Plummer , a small particles processor supporting OSIRIS - REx ; Mari Montoya , OSIRIS - male monarch astromaterials particles mainframe ; Jannatul Ferdous , astromaterials C.P.U. supporting OSIRIS - REx ; Curtis Calva , astromaterials processor supporting OSIRIS - REx ; Carla Gonzalez , astromaterials CPU supporting OSIRIS - male monarch .
Click here to see all of the winner of the2024 Gizmodo Science Fair .
Gizmodo Science FairNASAOSIRIS - king
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