Preparation at the Clean Room
The team will spend the next few weeks in the tidy space at Johnson built solely for Bennu samples. The clean space consists of customized glove boxes built to fit the sample canister including the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head inside. The TAGSAM head was on the end of a robotic arm that collected rocks and dust from asteroid Bennus surface area on October 20, 2020.
The new OSIRIS-REx sample tidy space at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. This photo was taken on June 22, 2023. Credit: NASA/James Blair
Extraction and Examination Procedures
Having actually practiced these procedures for scientists, service technicians and months plan to proceed through the many actions of getting rid of the sample from the TAGSAM. They prepare to place the cylinder in the glove box and disassemble it. Then, they prepare to get rid of the TAGSAM head, where researchers expect the majority of the sample to be, storing every piece and cataloging of hardware and asteroid dust found outside of it.
Scientist strategy to examine asteroid dust from the initial disassembly for an early look into the chemical, mineralogical, and physical characteristics and rock types that might be found in the bulk sample.
Public Sharing of Findings
NASA prepares to share these preliminary findings, plus first images of the sample, in a live broadcast on October 11.
A shipping container with the cylinder of asteroid Bennu sample is strapped down onboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 airplane. The sample cylinder, together with taken apart pill components and environmental samples from Utah, was transferred to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston on September 25, 2023– one day after landing in the Utah desert. Credit: NASA/ Molly Wasser.
NASAs Johnson Space Center received the very first U.S. asteroid sample from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on September 24. Scientists will quickly analyze the sample from asteroid Bennu, with results to be shared in a live broadcast on October 11.
The very first U.S. asteroid sample, delivered by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to Earth on September 24, has actually gotten to its permanent home at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it will be cared for, stored, and distributed to scientists worldwide.
Today, the sample showed up in Houston at 12:40 pm ET (11:40 am CT) aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 airplane, which landed at Ellington Field. From there, it was moved to NASA Johnson.
A shipping container with the container of asteroid Bennu sample is strapped down onboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 airplane. The sample cylinder, along with taken apart capsule parts and environmental samples from Utah, was transferred to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston on September 25, 2023– one day after landing in the Utah desert. The clean space includes custom-made glove boxes constructed to fit the sample canister consisting of the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head inside. The brand-new OSIRIS-REx sample tidy space at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.