NASA has collected a whopping 121 grams of sample from asteroid Bennu

When the OSIRIS-REx dropped a capsule in the Utah desert last year, it made headlines around the globe for returning NASA’s first sample of an asteroid to Earth. Scientists were eager to get their hands on the sample of asteroid Bennu to learn about the early formation of the solar system, but actually getting at the sample proved to be rather trickier than imagined. Scientists were able to extract 70 grams of material from the sample canister relatively easily, making it by far the largest asteroid sample ever brought to Earth, but two troublesome fasteners made it difficult to extract the rest of the sample. The team knew it had plenty more sample inside, but it had to be patient as special new tools were constructed that could undo the fasteners without losing a single gram of the precious sample. Now, NASA has revealed that the mission delivered a total of 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from Bennu, more than twice the mission’s goal of 60 grams. The team was able to fully remove the troublesome fasteners in January this year and completely disassemble the part holding the sample, called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head. That let the researchers access the remaining 51 grams to go along with the 70 grams previously collected. Next, the sample will be shared between NASA and various U.S. and international research organizations. This includes sending some of the sample to the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, which was responsible for the first-ever return of a sample to Earth with its Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2 missions, which dropped off samples in 2010 and 2020, respectively. JAXA shared a portion of the 5 grams of sample it collected from asteroid Ryugu with NASA, and now NASA will share a portion of its sample from Bennu in return. Some of the Bennu sample will also be set aside for preservation to be examined with new and more powerful instruments as these are developed over time. NASA says it will preserve at least 70% of the sample at its Johnson Space Center facility in Houston “for further research by scientists worldwide, including future generations.” NASA recently brought its first sample back from an asteroid, with the OSIRIS-REx mission dropping off a sample from asteroid Bennu in the Utah desert. The goal of the mission was to collect at least 60 grams of material, and NASA has now revealed that a total of 70.3 grams has been removed from the sampler so far. The researchers didn’t know beforehand how much material they had collected, as they hadn’t been able to perform the required maneuvers with the spacecraft to make a mass estimate while the sample was in transit. They had chosen not to perform the acceleration maneuvers that would let them measure the mass due to an issue that occurred during sample collection, when a rock had wedged open the door of the sample canister and allowed some of the sample to escape. To prevent any more sample loss, the canister was quickly stowed inside the spacecraft. NASA and SpaceX have called off Thursday’s launch of the Psyche asteroid mission. Officials blamed the delay on poor weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center launch site in Florida. A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Sample material from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right of the container. Scientists have found evidence of both carbon and water in initial analysis of this material. The bulk of the sample is located inside. NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold NASA today revealed its first sample collected from an asteroid. The OSIRIS-REx mission traveled 1.2 billion miles to visit asteroid Bennu and scoop up a sample, and last month that sample was dropped through Earth’s atmosphere before landing in the Utah desert.