NASA trying to stuff excess baggage into OSIRIS-REx after too-successful asteroid scoop
- Reference: 1603694710
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/26/osiris_rex_excess_baggage/
- Source link:
And now that same problem appears to have befallen the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft after its visit to asteroid Bennu.
Which is a good problem to have because despite being confident the craft succeeded in its attempt to scoop up bits of asteroid Bennu last week, project boffins didn’t know how much stuff they’d scored.
New analysis revealed over the weekend suggests the mission has exceeded expectations.
[1]
The TAGSAM on OSIRIS-REx leaking regolith
“The Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) performed the sampling event in optimal conditions,” says a [2]weekend post from NASA . “Newly available analyses show that the collector head was flush with Bennu’s surface when it made contact and when the nitrogen gas bottle was fired to stir surface material. It also penetrated several centimetres into the asteroid’s surface material. All data so far suggest that the collector head is holding much more than two ounces of regolith.”
Seeing as OSIRIS-REx’s target sample size was two ounces – about sixty grams – that’s good news.
But it’s also created the excess baggage problem because NASA’s newest photos suggest the TAGSAM is so full that it is leaking.
[3]Youtube Video
Mission scientists “suspect bits of material are passing through small gaps where a mylar flap – the collector’s ‘lid’ – is slightly wedged open by larger rocks,” according to the post.
“We are working to keep up with our own success here, and my job is to safely return as large a sample of Bennu as possible,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “The loss of mass is of concern to me, so I’m strongly encouraging the team to stow this precious sample as quickly as possible.”
The team likes that idea: NASA says it is already “finalizing a timeline for sample storage.” ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/10/26/nasa_osiris_rex_tagsam_gif.jpg
[2] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-osiris-rex-spacecraft-collects-significant-amount-of-asteroid
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJBv4reH9IU
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Much too little and a little too much
So the opposite problem to the Mars Insight lander's "mole" problem. One collects too much stuff and the other can't (literally) get stuck in.
Why only 2 oz ?
Can anyone enlighten me as to why NASA would send an 880 kg space craft on a 7 year mission and only bring back 2.1 oz ? Would it really make much difference to the machine to have a bigger suitcase and so be able to give a sample to more labs when it gets back ?
Maybe take samples from different places on Bennu.
Re: Why only 2 oz ?
The rocket equation is a harsh mistress.
If you need to bring back mass, you need to change it's velocity, for which you need fuel. If you want to bring back more mass, you need more fuel. You also need more fuel to bring that extra fuel in the first place. And a bigger rocket to lift that extra fuel (that also needs to burn more fuel because of the extra fuel to move the added fuel). You also need a bigger return capsule, which adds mass, requiring more fuel (and a bigger rocket to bring that fuel)
It's a basically a balancing act on how much mass you can bring back versus how much fuel you can stuff into your spacecraft and how big the rocket you have available to bring it to space is.
Re: Why only 2 oz ?
And that 2 oz/60 g figure is just the minimum they were hoping for, and if they'd gotten less than that, they might have gone back for more. What they were really hoping for was something around 1 kg. That would make rather more of a difference.
Ounces?
NASA, get with metric. Imperial units are rubbish for engineering, which is why British Scientists refined the metric system.
Re: Ounces?
They actually are doing everything in metric, they're just putting everything in fantasy units for the press release, because apparently they get a lot of heat from the average public if they put it in proper units.
Lorryload of Hay
Sounds a bit like a lorry full of hay bales heading down the motorway....
Most will be deposited along the interstellar hyperspace bypass before it reaches the final destination.
Re: Lorryload of Hay
s/interstellar/interplanetary/
Excess baggage
The team can thank their lucky stars they are not trying to get a giant toy, stuffed donkey and a three foot diameter sombrero from Torremolinos, onto a Ryanair flight.
The cost would mean leaving most of the sample at the departure gate.