NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission more than doubles asteroid Bennu sample return goal

[Admin]

After months of waiting, NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return container is unlocked — and the space agency has weighed the total Bennu sample.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission more than doubles asteroid Bennu sample return goal : Read more

 

[Cisventure Astronot]

This is an awesome success, but there was only 51.2 g inside the capsule? If it was only the stuff inside, then this mission wouldn't meet their 60 g hopes. Was this because the sample was a finer grain than expected? If all went to plan, then would they have gotten what they wanted? Did they always think there would be some stuck on the outside? Is the sample inside more pristine than the stuff on the outside?

 

[billslugg]

From what I could find, the sample device was held open by rocks, which is why they stowed it immediately versus doing a measurement of the spacecraft inertia to determine how much they got. They saw by image they had a good size sample and they did not want the thrusting to cause sample loss. The entire sample grabbing system was stowed inside a leakproof capsule so all of the sample is pristine, even that on the outside of the sample container.