Asteroid Bennu samples giving NASA a hard time

A canister containing Asteroid Bennu samples is giving NASA a hard time as the Johnson Space Center (JSC) is struggling to open the canister.

NASA capsule landed in a desert in the US state of Utah. It carried the largest number of asteroid samples that it ever collected in the last month.

A canister containing asteroid samples is giving NASA a hard time. Here's why

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— WION (@WIONews) October 24, 2023

Click here to find out the facts about why Asteroid Bennu is a threat to Earth

NASA showed the first look of collected samples of Asteroid Bennu on Oct 11, 2023, to the world. Scientists hope they will extract clues about the earliest days of the solar system. And most probably the life origins of these samples. According to NASA Scientists, they have surpassed the OSIRIS-REx mission’s goal of collecting 60 grams of rock samples from asteroid to earth.

#NASA’s #OSIRISREx surpasses its goal of bringing at least 60 grams of rock sample from #asteroid Bennu to Earth https://t.co/Qs80w6UmEf
— National Herald (@NH_India) October 24, 2023

However, the JSC team at NASA is now struggling to open the canister containing Asteroid Bennu Samples.

The team for the OSIRIS-REx mission had a hard time opening the TAGSAM head in the last week. It contained the bulk of the rocks collected by spacecraft in the year 2020.

The team discovered two of the 35 fasteners on the TAGSAM head couldn’t be removed after multiple attempts using tools approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx glovebox. So team is working to develop and apply new approaches to extract material from inside the head while keeping it safe and intact.

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. It came back to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, to drop off material from asteroid Bennu.