OSIRIS-REx/OSIRIS-APEX Mission Updates

[redliox]

Largest sample is about 1 cm.

Would it be safe to presume 1 cm is considered chunky for the expected sample sizes?

[Zed_Noir]

Excluding the dust particles. Wonder when NASA will release the number of individual pieces cataloged after they remove all the samples?

[Blackstar]

Largest sample is about 1 cm.

Would it be safe to presume 1 cm is considered chunky for the expected sample sizes?

I'm sure that at some point they'll produce a distribution of the sample sizes. I think they already did a preliminary estimate of the distribution for the sample they already have.

[vjkane]

Largest sample is about 1 cm.

Would it be safe to presume 1 cm is considered chunky for the expected sample sizes?

It will be interesting to learn whether the chunks remain intact with removal. My sense is that dust bunnies may have more structural integrity.

[Dalhousie]

Largest sample is about 1 cm.

Would it be safe to presume 1 cm is considered chunky for the expected sample sizes?

It will be interesting to learn whether the chunks remain intact with removal. My sense is that dust bunnies may have more structural integrity.

The sharp fracture planes on those fragments to be look those found on indurated material, rather than loose aggregates

[vjkane]

Largest sample is about 1 cm.

Would it be safe to presume 1 cm is considered chunky for the expected sample sizes?

It will be interesting to learn whether the chunks remain intact with removal. My sense is that dust bunnies may have more structural integrity.

The sharp fracture planes on those fragments to be look those found on indurated material, rather than loose aggregates

Nice observation

[meekGee]

Largest sample is about 1 cm.

Would it be safe to presume 1 cm is considered chunky for the expected sample sizes?

It will be interesting to learn whether the chunks remain intact with removal. My sense is that dust bunnies may have more structural integrity.

They survived buffeting during reentry, and the last touchdown impact.  I think they're rocks.

[Blackstar]

During a presentation today, the mission PI indicated that there may be an estimated 30-70 grams of material still in the TAGSAM.

I don't know exactly what this means--if they already removed the easy material from the TAGSAM and maybe this 30-70 grams is inside the filters? Dunno.

[Blackstar]

https://www.leonarddavid.com/bash-stash-and-dash-inspection-of-osiris-rex-asteroid-samples-offer-surprises/

[catdlr]

Feb 15, 2024
Curation team members from the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston perform a pour maneuver to distribute the remaining asteroid sample material from the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head into sample containers. The team includes:

Nicole Lunning, OSIRIS-REx curator
Jannatul Ferdous, astromaterials processor
Julia Plummer, astromaterials processor
Rachel Funk, astromaterials processor

For more info: www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

[Blackstar]

Somebody will need to check this, but I just saw a tweet indicating that the total collected sample was 121.6 of sample material. The requirement was 60 grams.

[catdlr]

Somebody will need to check this, but I just saw a tweet indicating that the total collected sample was 121.6 of sample material. The requirement was 60 grams.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/02/15/nasa-announces-osiris-rex-bulk-sample-mass/

[matthewkantar]

Somebody will need to check this, but I just saw a tweet indicating that the total collected sample was 121.6 of sample material. The requirement was 60 grams.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/02/15/nasa-announces-osiris-rex-bulk-sample-mass/

For those more versed in fast food than metric units, that’s almost exactly a quarter pounder.

[Targeteer]

https://www.space.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-total-weight?utm_content=space.com&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social

[Targeteer]

Somebody will need to check this, but I just saw a tweet indicating that the total collected sample was 121.6 of sample material. The requirement was 60 grams.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/02/15/nasa-announces-osiris-rex-bulk-sample-mass/

For those more versed in fast food than metric units, that’s almost exactly a quarter pounder.

before or after cooking ? 

[Targeteer]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-apex/2024/02/20/nasas-osiris-apex-completes-1st-perihelion/


NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX Completes 1st Perihelion

Preliminary telemetry indicates that NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft successfully completed a two-month operation that brought it 25 million miles closer to the Sun than it was designed to function. The spacecraft continues its journey to reach asteroid Apophis in April 2029.

The OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft, formerly known as OSIRIS-REx, repositioned one of its two solar arrays to shade critical components from the Sun’s heat during its Jan. 2 close pass, or “perihelion.” When it returned to a thermally safe distance of about 60 million miles from the Sun in early February, OSIRIS-APEX rotated its array back into place to help generate power.

The limited telemetry available suggests that OSIRIS-APEX performed as predicted during the perihelion. It will take a few months for the mission team to conduct a full assessment of the spacecraft’s performance, during which it flew to roughly half the distance between Earth and the Sun.

Since early December 2023, engineers have had limited information about spacecraft status, as the spacecraft was configured for its safety. This included orienting its main antenna such that high-speed communication with Earth wasn’t possible.

But, in mid-March, the team finally will be able to point the spacecraft’s powerful high-gain antenna toward Earth and download the data OSIRIS-APEX collected during perihelion.

Engineers also plan to turn on and test the spacecraft’s instruments in early April and will provide a spacecraft health assessment in May to determine any possible degradation to surfaces or components caused by the extreme heat it endured. Until then, the team will carefully monitor the spacecraft to ensure it continues to function as expected.

The January perihelion was the first of seven perihelions the spacecraft will complete to reach Apophis, six of which will bring OSIRIS-APEX within 46.5 million miles of the Sun. The second perihelion is scheduled for Sept. 1, 2024.

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/starstryder/status/1767941383329820846

They found objects in the Bennu Sample that are clearly pieces of 1 initial thing (what do you call these tiny bits of asteroid?) This is the ultimate puzzle!

[Targeteer]

https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/potentially-hazardous-asteroid-bennu-contains-the-building-blocks-of-life-and-minerals-unseen-on-earth-scientists-reveal-in-1st-comprehensive-analysis

Potentially hazardous' asteroid Bennu contains the building blocks of life and minerals unseen on Earth, scientists reveal in 1st comprehensive analysis

Scientists shared the first comprehensive science results from NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid-sampling mission at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, revealing the out-of-this-world makeup of asteroid Bennu.

TEXAS — Nearly four years after NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft collected a sample from an asteroid, scientists are finally revealing the intriguing composition of the space rock.

Among them, the near-Earth asteroid, known as Bennu, contains a surprising reservoir of a mineral called magnesium phosphate. These bright-white particles sprinkled in a sea of Bennu's dark rocks is a rare find in astromaterials, scientists say.

"It's no surprise that we initially thought this might be a contaminant," said Jessica Barnes, an assistant professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) who's leading the phosphate analysis in the returned sample.

Speaking at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Texas and online last week, Barnes said there are no good chemical analogues of the mineral on Earth, either because it is too fragile to survive the fall to Earth or vanishes soon after. Its presence in Bennu's sample can be used to infer different episodes of geologic activity on Bennu's parent body, she said.

The samples also show the widespread presence of glycine, the simplest amino acid and a crucial ingredient of proteins, as well as other water-bearing minerals, including carbonates, sulfites, olivine and magnetite, all of which are tangible evidence that Bennu's parent body witnessed multiple water-related episodes before its fragments coalesced into Bennu.

Other scientists studying the extraterrestrial bounty found abundant water-altered compounds called phyllosilicates, as well as a rich collection of other organic and hydrated minerals. Phyllosilicates, which are structurally bound to water in meteorites, may have been the cradles for organics and water that scientists suspect were delivered to Earth early in its history.

The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range.
The sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. (Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber)

The sample, scooped from Bennu in 2020 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, returned to Earth in a protected capsule on Sept. 24, 2023. A day later, it was delivered for analysis at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, where a "tiger team" of scientists began a preliminary investigation of the material that had leaked outside the spacecraft's sample collector. (Two pesky screws on the container lid prevented access to the bulk of the collected sample until January, which is when scientists officially cataloged 4.29 ounces, or 121.6 grams, of collected material — double the initial prediction.)

In a fleet of talks at the LPSC, the mission team reported that the stones cataloged so far also sport a variety of textures, hydrated minerals and evidence for space weathering, as is expected from an airless, eons-old rock.

"It's a beautiful sample," said Sara Russell, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum in London who analyzed a small fragment of the sample. "Also, I would say it's not quite like any meteorite in our collection."
The most pristine asteroid sample ever

This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on Jan. 6, 2019, was created by combining two images taken by the NavCam 1 imager aboard NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft: a short exposure image, which shows the asteroid clearly, and a long-exposure image (five seconds), which shows the particles clearly.
A view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on Jan. 6, 2019. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin)

Unlike most meteorites, whose surfaces are altered by years-long exposure to Earth's air by the time they are found, pieces of Bennu are the most pristine space rocks scientists have ever held.

"I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to see some samples where everything isn't altered to sulfates and all kinds of muck," said team member Tim McCoy, a curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., which received a sample of the asteroid to analyze last November. "You're seeing it literally the day it fell — it is remarkable to see something that fresh."

Many of the cataloged rocks from Bennu are "hummocky boulders" with rough, "sandpaper-like texture," said team member Andrew Ryan, a research scientist at LPL at the University of Arizona. A 1.4-inch-wide (3.5 centimeters), 0.23-ounce (6.6 grams) rock is "by far our largest booty from the surface of Bennu," he said, gesturing toward fresh 3D scans of the rock taken at the curation lab at JSC.

Most measured minerals confirm multiple predictions made from remote sensing data collected from OSRISIS-REx as it approached Bennu. "We got it right with the remote sensing," said Harold Connolly, a geologist at Rowan University in New Jersey, "and that feeds directly into how we are analyzing the sample and testing our hypotheses."

So far, the analysis has been consistent with the leading theory that Bennu broke off from a much larger asteroid about 2 billion to 700 million years ago. For instance, the latest analysis shows Bennu's rocks littered with impact-related breccias, which are rock fragments loosely held together like pebbles in concrete.
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"These breccias probably didn't form on Bennu," said McCoy, who's leading the research on these features. "They formed on the parent asteroid and then in of themselves became boulders that were incorporated into Bennu."

It is still unclear precisely when they formed.

"We're still in the very early days of this very meticulous work," McCoy said. "There's a lot we don't know."

[Blackstar]

https://www.leonarddavid.com/book-review-the-asteroid-hunter-a-scientists-journey-to-the-dawn-of-our-solar-system/

[deadman1204]

https://www.leonarddavid.com/book-review-the-asteroid-hunter-a-scientists-journey-to-the-dawn-of-our-solar-system/

A recent episode of planetary radio included a small interview about this book:
https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2024-the-asteroid-hunter