- cross-posted to:
- astronomy@mander.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- astronomy@mander.xyz
Late last year, a spacecraft containing samples of a 4.6-billion-year-old asteroid landed safely in the desert after a 1.2-billion mile journey. There was only one little problem: NASA couldn’t get the canister containing its prized rocks open.
After months of tinkering, scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston finally dislodged two stuck fasteners that had kept the pieces of the asteroid Bennu out of researchers’ hands.
“It’s open! It’s open!” NASA’s Planetary Science Division posted Friday on X, along with a photograph of the slate-colored bounty of dust and small rocks inside the canister.
Scientists had to switch course on the canister opening effort in mid-October after it became clear that none of the items in NASA’s box of approved tools could force open the last two of 35 fasteners sealing the canister.
To be fair, they probably spent a decade or more planning, designing, building, launching, and completing the actual sample return. Once the actual samples are safely in the lab, I’m sure there are no deadlines whatsoever. Take whatever time it takes to do it right.
I’m sure avoiding contaminating the sample was the requirement that had them acting very cautiously. The comments saying that an angle grinder could have it open in 5 minutes were so annoying. Of course NASA engineers could bust it open if that’s all they cared about. The whole point of collecting a sample is to take extremely precise measurements of the contents. Any grinding wheel or saw, would risk adding contamination that would mess up the analysis.