The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has successfully stowed the sample collector head, which is full of surface material gathered from near-Earth asteroid Bennu, in the sample return capsule. This will prevent any more of the sample from leaking into space.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully stowed the sample collector head, which is full of surface material gathered from Bennu on October 20, in the sample return capsule on Wednesday. This will prevent any more of the sample from leaking into space.The mission team received images sent by the spacecraft on October 22 that revealed the sample collection head was full of surface material -- so much so that a flap was wedged open by rocks, allowing particles to escape into space.
"Given the complexity of the process to place the sample collector head onto the capture ring, we expected that it would take a few attempts to get it in the perfect position," said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement."Fortunately, the head was captured on the first try, which allowed us to expeditiously execute the stow procedure.
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