The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft captured material from the planet’s surface last week, but scientists say it has caught so much that the collector’s head leaks small particles. Today NASA announced plans to secure what it catches. The maneuver was originally scheduled to take place on November 2, but now they are going to do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow, the OSIRIS-Rex mission will begin the process of stove a massive sample of its planet Bennu. It’s a few days ahead of the original expectation, but the team is working hard to ensure we get as much Bennu as possible. More details: https://t.co/b7Wnoz219q pic.twitter.com/PXIlkZhnzi
– NASA’s Osiris-Rex (@OSIRISREx) October 26, 2020
The Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm will take several days for its collector head to be deposited in the capsule on the spacecraft, as the whole process is manually controlled and it is far away from the earth that handles the signals. 18 minutes to transmit a route.