OSIRIS-REx Sample from Bennu successfully recovered
Engineers today successfully recovered the asteroid sample capsule from the probe OSIRIS-REx, carrying several grams of material from the potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu.
The samples will be shipped to special facilities to protect the material from being exposed to Earth’s environment when the capsule is opened. It will take several months at least before the first research results are announced.
OSIRIS-REx, now renamed OSIRIS-APEX, now heads for the potentially dangeous asteroid Apophis, where it will orbit that asteroid beginning in 2029, shortly after Apophis makes its next close fly-by of Earth.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Engineers today successfully recovered the asteroid sample capsule from the probe OSIRIS-REx, carrying several grams of material from the potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu.
The samples will be shipped to special facilities to protect the material from being exposed to Earth’s environment when the capsule is opened. It will take several months at least before the first research results are announced.
OSIRIS-REx, now renamed OSIRIS-APEX, now heads for the potentially dangeous asteroid Apophis, where it will orbit that asteroid beginning in 2029, shortly after Apophis makes its next close fly-by of Earth.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I had to smile when I saw that the not very light capsule had to be carried into the NASA building by two women, while three men stood more or less idle nearby.
How the heck did they ever get a license to pull off that stunt? !
And somebody get NASA some bandwidth, the video of the entry was pixelated and jumpy. Sometimes I think influencers and media propagandists do that intentionally, to ‘keep it real’. They also managed to go off target at exactly the time of main parachute deployment.
Oh well, I’ll be interesting to see how much they got and how it analyzes.
Apparently the main chute opened at about 20,000 feet instead of 5,000, which the announcer said was the reason the capsule landed early. How’s that work, again?
Apparently (not yet confirmed) the drogue did not deploy, and only came out at main chute deploy. Something went wrong, but all’s well that ends well!
I never saw this drogue, and was having flashbacks to the last such mission that came back to Utah, with a comet flyby sample. Someone installed an accelerometer backwards, as I recall, so there was no chute at all. Ouch!
Andromeda Strain (1971)
“There’s a fire, sir.”
https://youtu.be/SGRxC79vvwA
3:02
I was thinking that drogue chute sure is small. So small not even there. Revoke the landing license for such shoddy engineering.
Yeah, Wayne, The Andromeda Strain came to mind to me, too.
Calvin-
HAR– was watching this Live and waiting for the camera feed to go black….
I’ll drop this in here, it’s from the DVD:
The Making of Andromeda Strain
https://youtu.be/ySSNU0d6fXY
(29:09)
NASA is taking a well-deserved beating this week for the poor management of Mars Sample Return, but today’s success reminds us that NASA *is* still capable of doing a planetary science mission on budget, and on schedule.
But it needs to be well conceived. It needs to be well managed. And the ostensible results have to justify the dollars spent on it.
NASA has sent successful probes to every planet (and ex-planet) in the Solar System, and put humans on the Moon. No other entity, including modern and extinct superpowers, has come within a country mile of such accomplishment.
And now even NASA itself says SLS is unaffordable. So there is hope.
While it is great to see that the Bennu sample return capsule was successfully recovered I think given the drogue chute failure that has to be.chalked up to luck as much as skill. NASA really dodged some major egg on their face and I bet they learn no humility from it. Time to step back a bit from their Rules for Thee but Not for Me attitude towards private space.
It still remains unclear to me just what the drogue chute DID do. The press conference was confusing on this point.