NASA said Friday that its robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx had succeeded in collecting an outsized sample of particles from the Bennu asteroid on – but such a lot that it absolutely was leaking.
The team guilty of the probe is now working to quickly stow the remaining samples that might eventually be delivered back to Earth to produce key scientific insights.
"A substantial fraction of the desired collected mass is seen escaping," mission chief Dante Lauretta said during a phone briefing with journalists.
OSIRIS-REx is about to come back direct in September 2023, hopefully with the biggest sample returned from space since the Apollo era, which is able to help unravel the origins of our system.
The probe is assumed to own collected some 400 grams of fragments, much more than the minimum of 60 grams needed, Lauretta said.
But the lid for the collector at the tip of the probe's arm where the fragments are being stored has been slightly wedged open by larger rocks, creating a leak, the scientists suspect.
Five to 10 grams have already been observed around the collection arm in an exceeding cloud remaining more or less within the surrounding area because of the microgravity environment, which makes fragments behave like fluids.
"My big concern now could be that the particles are escaping because we were almost a victim of our own success here," Lauretta said.
As a result, an inspiration to hold out a mass measurement on Saturday has been canceled since it could risk scattering further samples.
The task is now to cut back the maximum amount as possible the spacecraft's activities and prepare to stow the fabric in a very capsule on the probe as quickly as possible.
Is OSIRIS-REx, launched quite four years ago, in danger of losing its treasure? the amount of the leak isn't yet precisely known, but the experts seemed relatively confident that may not be the case.
"Bennu continues to surprise us with great science and also throwing some curveballs," Thomas Zurbuchen, a NASA associate administrator, said during a statement.
"And although we may move more quickly to stow the sample, it is not a foul problem to own. We are so excited to determine what appears to be an abundant sample that may inspire science for many years beyond this historic moment."
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