The dust collected on the cover weighs approximately 1.5 grams. They haven't weighed the "mylar flap pebbles" yet. The entire sample is still estimated at approximately 250 grams.

Some more shots of Bennu material that escaped TAGSAM - from NASA TV:

Literally looks like coal.

Yes, just with tiny little white particles here and there....
One of the panelists noted the fractal appearance compared with the images of Bennu from the surface, and it's very obvious in these stills.

And actually doesn't resemble coal. This is a low-albedo carbonaceous material.

--Bill

"Fractal appearance". Yes! Accreted (condensed??) from a primordial solar nebula, it does have a random-yet-organized nature.

--Bill

Dante Lauretta also mentioned 2 types of rocks visible on the surface of Bennu: 1) lighter, smooth, more compact and seem more durable, and 2) darker, rough, "conglomerate" and more brittle, and that these 2 types of rocks can even be seen in this small Bennu sample in the picture - he mentioned that in frame E two pebbles next to each other probably belong to these 2 types of rocks (the numbers in the picture are my addition):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFvIuSpACQA - 42:53

Container will be opened in 2 weeks, according to the telecon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2asm3j9RV3E

In this NASA Goddard Space Flight Center photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/, already mentioned on the forum, there is a high resolution picture of dust and small crumbs on the lid around TAGSAM shown during the conference:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/53251699726/
Credit: Dante Lauretta
CC license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

I am attaching some cut out and enlarged Bennu "pebbles".

There is also a small blue particle among the dust from Bennu - it clearly comes from the sampler itself or something put into the glovebox by people. This shows that researchers must carefully separate all "terrestrial artifacts" from this "bonus" Bennu material.
From the same photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/53251699726/
Credit: Dante Lauretta
CC license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Here you can see (I added arrows) how Bennu dust covers various difficult nooks and crannies on the outside of TAGSAM - collecting it all is not easy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/53250789352/
Credit: NASA
CC license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/


And here you can see the way they collect dust and pebbles: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/53250789327/
Credit: NASA
CC license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Here is a bit about the results of preliminary analyzes of the "bonus" material from Bennu.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-ben...s-carbon-water/

Unfortunately, high-resolution pictures of the crumbs from the mylar flap have not been published yet

Remember, the Bennu regolith is not "pristine". It is composed of fragments of Bennu as it is being abraded by meteors, fragments of meteors, fragments of asteroids, and fragments of planets and satellites. To get pristine material you would need to clean off an area down to 'bedrock' and collect samples of the undisturbed bedrock.

--Bill

So Bennu is a carbon rich near Earth asteroid and yet it is supposed to be pristine meaning that it has remained relatively unaltered since it's formation? Is a Carbon rich asteroid meant to have formed in this region in the early Solar system given that Earth is considered to be a carbon poor planet? If Bennu is carbon rich and thus may have formed in an outer region and now sits as a near Earth asteroid, how can one say it has remained pristine throughout the 4.5billion lifespan of the solar system ?

ADMIN NOTE: The debate over the definition of the word 'pristine' is now over. Nobody won.

Onward.

Since the pictures shown at the conference have not yet appeared on the main NASA website or the OSIRIS-REx blog, I am posting this:
better quality pictures of Bennu's samples from the mylar flap are here: https://www.facebook.com/NASAastromaterials
1: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=726...0000&type=3
2: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=726...0000&type=3
Credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

As for the "bedrock" of Bennu, it must be remembered that it is highly probable that this asteroid, like Ryugu, may be a so-called "rubble pile", i.e. a body entirely consisting of rather weakly "glued together" fragments resulting from cosmic collision, so there may be no such thing as „bedrock” at all.

As for Bennu's current orbit (relatively close to Earth), it is also highly probable that it has been there relatively recently (on the cosmic time scale) as a result of some perturbations in the "recent" past, and it was formed in an orbit further from the Sun.

Questions about the origin and evolution of this asteroid and its minerals will be answered by the analyzes of the provided samples, which have only just begun. Let's wait for the conclusions of these studies...

I'm sure we'll find that there are differing structures or internal makeups of asteroids. With larger and larger components making up the body we get away from rubble piles to loosely accreted to well-accreted. We'll know more once we get spacecraft on the bodies that can do CT Seismology and make accurate density measurements.
From the initial views of the loose material on the outside of the sampler I have the impression that the light-toned ("white") are spherical beads, while the dark irregular fragments are brecciated or accreted. But with no scale included this is a guess.

--Bill

They are continuing to slowly gather up the returned sample, including a bit from just inside the sampler head around the mylar flap. They've hit a snag removing that flap, so may be awhile before they get all of the material. Up to now they've collected 70.3 grams, so they have already passed the 60 gram goal.

Link to current blog entry: Sample mass milestone

Parachute deployment investigation results:
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-asteroid-sample-pa...ause-1851076738

Drogue basically didn't work as intended because the primary parachute was described as the "main" while some of the devices in the system also had a "main" side.

Those are tricky buggers! Last time-- Genesis-- they conspired to be installed backwards.

They were lucky. Lines to the drogue got cut instead of the mortar firing to deploy it. Then later when the lines were supposed to be cut to pull out the main, the drogue deployment was actuated and somehow the main came out and inflated ok....

I know nothing about this except as a bemused bystander.

The press release https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/12/0...yment-sequence/ seems inconsistent.

My impression is that there were three events and three signals:

1) deploy cover and drogue;

2) cut away drogue;

3) deploy main.

and these were supposed to be fired in the order 1, 2, 3, but in fact were fired in the order 2, 1, 3 because they swapped 1 and 2. But if you read the text in the press release it sounds like they swapped 1 and 3, which would have been order 3, 2, 1 and might have had similar effects assuming that deploying the main with the cover still on wasn't a big deal (I'd have thought it would be, these deployments can be pretty energetic.)

I hope it's the press release that's confused and not the real failure analysis!

Given the low altitude deployment, I assume the 2,1,3 sequence makes sense. Monty Python Holy Hand Grenade joke almost required here.

In missions I am familiar with, there is no separate actuation of (2) and (3). (2) is performed by e.g. separation nuts, or boltcutters on the spools holding the bridle lines to the drogue. Once the drogue is released, it pulls away, and drags on a lanyard that pulls out the bag containing the main. When the bridle and line to the main become taut, the bag is stripped off and the main inflates.

Thus there are only 2 sets of pyros (1) and (2), and 2 associated signals and function (3) is performed passively as a result of (2).

(1) is done on the deceleration history, and (2) on a pressure trigger, but apparently (1) and (2) were switched here, as I understand it (I eagerly await the final report)

I don't know for sure, but there's a lot of information in the Genesis failure report at https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/2006000...20060008607.pdf and this clearly shows three events and three sets of pyros (Table 2-3, below). I assume that the Genesis and OREx capsules are pretty similar electrically (though Genesis was supposed to use a parafoil.)

I didn't find anything with a similar level of detail for Stardust (all the best info is in failure reports. )

Click to view attachment

Some amazing footage I hadn't seen before of the sample return capsule re-entry

Some very glum faces when the drogue failed, and such relief when the main deployed!

An explanation for why the triumphal news stopped.

2 of 35 fasteners refuse to un-fasten:
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-osiris-rex-asteroi...iner-1851102598

They stopped trying with the available glovebox tools awhile back (Nov?) and are developing alternative methods.

(Note: I am surprised to be sourcing Gizmodo twice in a row here, though twice the MS edge landing page has shown me news that turns out to have been originally reported at Gizmodo. Good for them.)

I saw this a few weeks back--I believe from NASA. Not something kept quiet. They switched to lifting the flaps and scooping it out.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/10/2...mass-milestone/ from October 20. I think the only value-added that Giz is providing is getting some sort of timetable statement out of NASA PAO ("we anticipate it will be opened in the first quarter of 2024").

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03978-4 has a bit more recent info from AGU.

I sympathize with the PR problem NASA is having; almost everyone has experience with a balky screw and taking months to resolve it seems like a glacial pace.

I thought I saw an article that tried to link the drogue chute snafu with the stuck screws, but I'm not sure where, and it doesn't sound all that plausible.

If they have to order custom tools just to open those two screws, I'm not surprised it's taking this long. Supply chains, etc. There's probably faster ways to get in, but they don't want to take any risks.

As mcaplinger's (thank you) Nature summary says:


Not only metal shavings, but probably simply making sure they're inert away from the business end. I have to imagine that glovebox has some sort of atmospheric sampling for when that container opens. Even if not... a lot of diligence to go through.

Also, I didn't mean to imply caginess from NASA, just quiet. Prob the Oct 20 was candid enough that I saw the "2 fastener" statement at about that time and presumed it would be a minor thing. Or I didn't read closely. Either way I was curious on the recent lack of news.

Based on the photos, the screws on the periphery look like Phillips Torq-set ® screw heads. https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/ Not what I would have used, but I'm sure this was carefully considered.

I'd love to know how they've tried to remove these, what state the screw heads are currently in, what state the bits they were using are currently in, and what they are actually planning to do next. Are they making new bits, or making a new wrench, or both?

Having been involved in projects that busted off a screw head in a piece of flight hardware a time or two (never personally, thank goodness) if you thought you might get contamination from the bit, you'll get even more when you have to drill into the screw head to remove it.

[added because I can't resist: if the Scoop-VII capsule in The Andromeda Strain had been this hard to open, the movie would have been much shorter. ]

I was somewhat surprised to not see more The Andromeda Strain references in OSIRIS-REx media coverage.

NASA Finally Removes Last Two Fasteners To Access Historic Bennu Asteroid Sample

https://www.iflscience.com/nasa-finally-rem...id-sample-72422

From Nasa :
https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/1...g-bennu-sample/

Adding: Here is partial video of some of these activities: https://images.nasa.gov/details/OSIRIS-REx%...mple%20Curation

I thought they would show them opening it.

Image of it open:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-os...steroid-sample/

(I started the thread about this mission proposal in 2010... time flies. And in this case, really, this seems fast.)

As for the image... hard for me to tell what I'm looking at, whether the center is raised/depressed/open/closed etc. But I guess it's been 13.5 years so I can wait a bit more.

Looks like this with the notorious fasteners removed:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-dim..._fig1_328494748

... but the 'round metal collar' is still covering the areas where most of the sample was supposed to accumulate? Hard to tell.

It's raised.

Maybe it'll be helpful to review https://www.asteroidmission.org/asteroid-op...ns/tagsam_head/

I think most of the material you're seeing is overflow from the collection area proper.

In case the comparison isn't in people's minds, it's interesting to look at the samples and compare them to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites already in possession; the Allende meteorites are a good example. In theory, this is likely very similar stuff, except for the single striking difference in how they were collected: In the one case, pretty gently, and in the other case, with impacts, atmospheric entry, and unconstrained risk of contamination. Even just the surface texture of the OR samples is intriguing; there is no part of a meteorite that preserves that aspect of the original material. As for the interior, that could be arbitrarily close to the same. I look forward to seeing what science follows.

A few cut out frames from the released picture with interesting examples of Bennu samples that caught my attention.

In frame 1-2:
A and B - two completely different textures of "pebbles": smooth (A) and "brecciated" ( B )
C - areas of rock with a slightly brownish-reddish tint

In the remaining frames 3-7: bright, whitish minerals clearly visible


Original picture: https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/jsc202...006057~orig.jpg
Credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold

I looked at this too, but bumped up the saturation the make the colors more prominent.

The 'purple cast' is not uniform so can't be easily removed, but it's probably some sort of error in taking this photo.
Click to view attachment

It's interesting that if you look at the metadata of this image, you see


so this looks like it was taken with a Fuji GFX100S in 7:6 L mode and then focus merged. https://fujifilm-x.com/en-us/products/camer...-image-quality/

I think it's hard to have intuitions about the phenomena that might have acted on the surfaces of this stuff. Was some of this exposed to various forms of temperature and radiation for very, very long durations of time? Are there sides of a pebble that faced outward vs. inward? We've basically never seen anything like this up-close before even if lots of meteorites were very similar aside from the atmospheric entry.

In my opinion the formation of impact breccias as a result of meteorite impacts may be one of the few "geological" rock-forming processes that occur on Bennu "currently". Plus, of course, thermal and cosmic erosion as a result of temperature changes and the impact of cosmic (mainly solar) radiation.

But we must remember that there is a strong possibility that "present-day" Bennu may be a collection of debris created after a catastrophic collision and recombined. This means that different types of rocks on the surface may come from, for example, different regions of the parent body (or even from two or more different bodies), and the parent body could have been much larger, and "more interesting" geological processes could have occurred on it, e.g. transformation of minerals under the influence of water etc.

And finally, among the "pebbles" on the surface there may be fragments of "recent" meteorites from other objects...

This all gives some potential for a certain variety of rocks on Bennu's current surface...


EDIT: In the case of meteorites falling on Earth, we are usually dealing with single "samples" of individual rocks. But even in these meteorites, you can often see different rock lithologies (e.g. solid rock and breccia) next to each other

Unfortunately, the "disadvantage" of the samples delivered from Bennu by OSIRIS-REx is that they come from only one small point on the asteroid.

Mass of 121.6 grams (double the mission expectations)!

Congratulations!

The media is great. A few huge photos and a video. Looks like meticulous work

The mass is low-ish to these expectations, but I'd still say this estimate of "at least 2x 60g" was enough to say "stow it."
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2109/2109.05561.pdf

Paper says 250.37 +/- 101 g and 121.6 g is outside this range, but not by a huge amount (about 19% lower.)

https://lpsc2024.ipostersessions.com/defaul...-B2-03-BA-F5-5B

This link is to my LPSC poster. But can you see it without a request to log in? Let me know.

Phil

It pops up, no problem.

Thanks. I can't tell how it looks to others. I know I can see it!

Phil