NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft has exceeded expectations by collecting double the amount of asteroid samples it originally aimed for. The spacecraft has gathered a total of 121.6 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu, which is the largest amount of cosmic material ever collected from beyond the moon.
The mission encountered some obstacles when trying to open the sample container, as some fasteners were stuck. However, NASA’s perseverance paid off, and the samples are now safely stored at a special curation lab at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The samples collected from Bennu are unique in that they are black and carbon-rich, a first for NASA in collecting samples from an asteroid. Despite challenges such as rocks jamming the sample container lid and causing some samples to float away, NASA considers the mission a success.
The Osiris-Rex spacecraft returned the samples last September, three years after initially gathering them from the asteroid. Scientists are eager to analyze the samples to gain insights into the composition of asteroids and the early solar system.
Overall, this mission has proven to be a significant achievement for NASA, pushing the boundaries of space exploration and furthering our understanding of the universe.
