The process of collecting the sample was a carefully orchestrated dance. Osiris-Rex extended its 2 m (6.6 ft) tagus robotic arm to 30 cm. (1 ft) elongated with a wide sampling head, while folding into its solar panel for protection. The probe then slowly approached the surface, eventually reaching a meter (3.3 feet) below the selected target. The arm process was monitored by a hand-held imaging camera.
The camera comes close to my TAGSAM head and then affects the surface of Benue at only 0.2 miles, entering Regolith. Initially, it appears to have crushed some porous rocks below, and then another one later, firing a bottle of nitrogen gas. To put it mildly, NASA said, “there was a significant amount of material from the sample site.” It took about five to six seconds to collect the material, with the majority gathering in the first three seconds.
The head is designed to hold and store which stimulates the surface material. OSIRIS-Rex will first take a picture of the collector head to confirm the presence of Regolith, and then on Saturday, measure the mass of rock and dust by spinning like a centrifuge over its axis.
NASA said the sample “went as well as we could have imagined,” as it crushed a lot of material that should have accumulated in the sample chamber. Scientists have already learned a lot from watching the impact video about Bennu, but we will have to wait three long years for the spacecraft to return to Earth, before it can be verified what it really is.
