The Oasis-Rex probe is missing a part of the samples from the asteroid Bennu

Washington: The US space agency (NASA) announced that its probe, “OSAIRES-REX”, managed to collect a large number of samples from the surface of the asteroid Bennu over the weekend, to the point that the door of the room intended for its Storage was no longer closed, jeopardizing the mission.

The probe is scheduled to return to Earth in 2023 with samples of dust and gravel, and it will be the largest space sample since the “Apollo” missions to the moon if it can store what it has collected in a tightly enclosed space.

“A lot of the mass that has been gathered is flying,” project leader Dante Loretta said during a conference call.

In parallel, the probe photographed itself from all angles, allowing the ground crew responsible for the probe to discover an alarming cloud of pellets floating around the three-meter-long arm.

On the positive side, Loretta noted, the probe collected hundreds of grams of samples, and that is likely to be about 400 grams, more than the desired minimum of 60 grams.

However, between five and ten grams were observed around the arm as the shrapnel behaved like a liquid due to microgravity.

“What worries me the most is that the pellets will fly off, so we will be victims of our success,” Loretta added. This caused the cancellation of the process that was scheduled for Saturday to measure the mass of samples by rotating the probe, so that more collected fragments would not leak.

Given this situation, it seems urgent to minimize probe activities to reduce the possibility of sample leakage, and to work as soon as possible to prepare the storage location located in the center of the probe.

This involves the movement of the probe, and this process must be carefully prepared by the engineers and will take place on Tuesday.

The samples were currently placed in the circular chamber at the tip of the probe, which on Tuesday landed on Benno’s surface for about six seconds and lifted the granules off the ground by blowing compressed gas. They trapped it inside, like a bell hidden underneath. However, “NASA” was surprised that the probe was implanted 48 centimeters and the closing mechanism of the chamber was obstructed by the presence of stones.

But does this mean that there is a risk that the “Osiris-Rex” will lose the treasure it keeps? In fact, the exact size of the leak has yet to be defined, but the scientists appeared to be relatively reassuring and deemed it unnecessary to re-process all samples.

“We think we are losing a small part of the material … but nonetheless, I have been concerned since I saw the images,” said Dante Loretta. He stressed the importance of “storing as carefully as possible to reduce the possibility” of losing more samples in the future.

In March 2021, “Oasis-Rex”, which was launched four years ago, begins its journey back to Earth with samples and will land in the Utah desert on September 24, 2023.

“We have to wait for the probe to come back to find out exactly how many we have, and this is difficult,” Loretta said.