Engineers succeed in releasing two fasteners that blocked access to OSIRIS-REx Bennu samples
Using new specially designed tools, engineers have finally succeeded in removing the two fasteners that had prevented them from opening the sample return capsule that holds the bulk of material from the asteroid Bennu that was grabbed by OSIRIS-REx and brought back to Earth.
Curation processors paused disassembly of the TAGSAM head hardware in mid-October after they discovered that two of the 35 fasteners could not be removed with the tools approved for use inside the OSIRIS-REx glovebox.
In response, two new multi-part tools were designed and fabricated to support further disassembly of the TAGSAM head. These tools include newly custom-fabricated bits made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel; the hardest metal approved for use in the pristine curation gloveboxes.
The fasterners have been removed, but the sample capsule still needs to be dissassembled before the samples can be accessed and analyzed. It is now expected that by the spring the material will be fully catelogued and available for scientists to study.
In an ironic twist, OSIRIS-REx brought back so much extra material clinging to the outside of that sample return capsule that such research has already begun. In fact, that extra material actually exceeded in weight the minimum amount the mission wanted to capture inside the capsule. What will be found inside the capsule will only add to the mission’s success.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Using new specially designed tools, engineers have finally succeeded in removing the two fasteners that had prevented them from opening the sample return capsule that holds the bulk of material from the asteroid Bennu that was grabbed by OSIRIS-REx and brought back to Earth.
Curation processors paused disassembly of the TAGSAM head hardware in mid-October after they discovered that two of the 35 fasteners could not be removed with the tools approved for use inside the OSIRIS-REx glovebox.
In response, two new multi-part tools were designed and fabricated to support further disassembly of the TAGSAM head. These tools include newly custom-fabricated bits made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel; the hardest metal approved for use in the pristine curation gloveboxes.
The fasterners have been removed, but the sample capsule still needs to be dissassembled before the samples can be accessed and analyzed. It is now expected that by the spring the material will be fully catelogued and available for scientists to study.
In an ironic twist, OSIRIS-REx brought back so much extra material clinging to the outside of that sample return capsule that such research has already begun. In fact, that extra material actually exceeded in weight the minimum amount the mission wanted to capture inside the capsule. What will be found inside the capsule will only add to the mission’s success.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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