NASA has admitted it cannot open the high-tech hardware that is currently storing precious dust samples from asteroid Bennu.
However, even if scientists fail to figure out how to open the sample safely, the six-year mission fortunately won’t be entirely ruined.
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The US space agency’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched in September 2016 and reached Bennu in 2018.
The spacecraft then spent nearly two years orbiting asteroid Bennu before venturing close enough to snatch a sample of the loose surface material with its robot arm in 2020.
The team analysing the samples have already collected 70.3g of rocks and dust from outside the sampler hardware – surpassing Nasa’s goal of bringing at least 60g to Earth, according to a recent blog post.
Scientists have also been able to retrieve parts of the sample from inside the head of the capsule with tweezers.
However, most of the material from asteroid Bennu remains trapped inside.
“In the last week, the team at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston changed its approach to opening the TAGSAM head, which contained the bulk of the rocks and dust collected by the spacecraft in 2020,” Nasa wrote.
TAGSAM stands for the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, which is the head of the collection arm that grabbed the sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu three years ago.
“After multiple attempts at removal, the team discovered two of the 35 fasteners on the TAGSAM head could not be removed with the current tools approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx glovebox.
“The team has been working to develop and implement new approaches to extract the material inside the head, while continuing to keep the sample safe and pristine.”
A key problem is that the TAGSAM must be opened under very unique conditions.
The procedure needs to be completed in a special sealed box with attached gloves and under a constant flow of nitrogen.
This is designed to minimise contamination with Earth’s atmosphere.
“The team will spend the next few weeks developing and practising a new procedure to remove the remaining asteroid sample from the TAGSAM sampler head while simultaneously processing the material that was collected this week,” the blog post added.
“While the procedure to access the final portion of the material is being developed, the team has removed the TAGSAM head from the active flow of nitrogen in the glovebox, stored it in its transfer container, sealed with an O-ring and surrounded by a sealed Teflon bag to make sure the sample is kept safe in a stable, nitrogen-rich, environment.”
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