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NASA unlocks $1B canister of asteroid dust
- hughes 3y agoOdd that the article about finally opening the canister didn't actually include any photos of the inside of the canister. You can see it on the official article here: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-osiris-rex-curation-team-reveals-remaining-asteroid-sample/ https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-osiris-rex-curation...
- shiroiuma 3y ago>Odd that the article about finally opening the canister didn't actually include any photos of the inside of the canister. This is normal for modern "journalism".
- gaudat 3y agoMildly interesting: I opened the titular image in a new tab hoping to find a higher resolution one, only to see that NASA.gov is using Wordpress, and the original image file is a whopping 102 megapixels, with all EXIF info intact, taken by a Fujifilm GFX100s. A suiting tool to take a photo of an object worth $1B. https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/orex-high-res.jpg https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/orex-high-re...
- hipadev23 3y ago> only to see that NASA.gov is using Wordpress Gotta give them some slack, they just spent 4 months struggling with two screws. This isn't the space race NASA anymore.
- neilv 3y agoI think they were trying to avoid the scenario: move fast, break things, contaminate $1B sample. Or another scenario, which is a possibility when personalities in charge don't get enough sleep: move fast, break things, snort lines of $1B asteroid dust on Rogan.
- russdill 3y agoIt's not even necessary to contaminate it. All that's necessary is behind unable to rule out contamination.
- jvanderbot 3y agoOh how quickly we're all entitled. It came from deep space. Can you give it a minute? Everything is awesome and nobody's happy. --> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFB7q89_3U https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFB7q89_3U
- ToucanLoucan 3y agoDespite all the shit people give wordpress, this works way better than yet another Node.js atrocity that needs 700 MB of JavaScript to render text.
- perihelions 3y ago- "This isn't the space race NASA anymore." To be fair, Apollo engineering failed badly on similar problems (with moon samples), - "But in spite of all this beautiful complexity, there were just basic, fundamental mistakes,” Dr. Degroot said." - "NASA officials were well aware that the lab wasn’t perfect. Dr. Degroot’s paper details many of the findings from inspections and tests that revealed gloveboxes and sterilizing autoclaves that cracked, leaked or flooded." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/science/nasa-moon-quarantine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/science/nasa-moon-quarant... https://gwern.net/doc/existential-risk/2023-degroot.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/existential-risk/2023-degroot.pdf (pdf) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36266360 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36266360 (33 comments) (The goal in that case wasn't to protect the sample integrity, but to contain alien pathogens). late edit: Another related example (lunar soil), - "Although this material has been isolated in vacuum-packed bottles, it is now unusable for detailed chemical or mechanical analysis—the gritty particles deteriorated the knife-edge indium seals of the vacuum bottles; air has slowly leaked in." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Availability_on_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Availability_on_Ear...
- HPsquared 3y agoThat was the old "move fast and break things" NASA.
- WWLink 3y agoWe should just have a starship go crash into an asteroid. :p
- ericcumbee 3y agoIts got to get to orbit first, you have to launch enough of them to refuel the first one. I have no doubt they will get them to work, but its not an option yet.
- WWLink 3y agoI'm pretty sure they could get enough methane out of Elon Musk running his mouth to send a probe to Pluto. Probably have enough left over to catch up with Voyager 1.
- fragmede 3y agoWhy shouldn't they use WordPress? I'd be pissed if they'd wasted taxpayers dollars coming up with a bespoke system because NIH. It's a CMS.
- rvnx 3y agoPart “Space-grade CMS”: $45’000’000
- brtkdotse 3y agoThe Soviets used a handwritten HTML file served with Apache
- sph 3y agoGold plated and radiation hardened
- addandsubtract 3y agoPowered by MeteorJS
- Kye 3y agoI can't find any suggestion that they shouldn't use WordPress in the post you replied to.
- fragmede 3y ago"only to see" sets up a contrast between what was initially expected and what was actually discovered
- buildbot 3y agoThat’s a relatively inexpensive choice, nicely suited to the job. Could have gone with a h6d-400ms for a bit more resolution ;)
- gaudat 3y agoAnything from Hasselblad is sadly not usable for US govt projects because they are owned by DJI now
- miyuru 3y agothe high res image is linked at the bottom of the article. https://images.nasa.gov/details/jsc2024e006057 https://images.nasa.gov/details/jsc2024e006057 https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/jsc2024e006057/jsc2024e006057~orig.jpg https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/jsc2024e006057/jsc2024e...
- jacquesm 3y agoInteresting how that image is so 'scale free' it could be almost any size. The only giveaways are the screw heads visible elsewhere outside of the cylinder and even those could be in quite a range.
- mywacaday 3y agoThis image is something that makes me grateful for technology, a probe was sent into our solar system, rendezvoused with a rock, colected a sample, returned back to earth and I am able to view a high resolution image on my phone almost as soon as the canister was opened. The amount of technology to make this work in space and on my phone is too long to figure out in full but bravo to all the engineers from NASA to camera makers to WordPress and everything on every layer in between that they are built on, I salute you all!
- mgdlbp 3y agoThat's a lot of hot pixels for base ISO! Could be the focus stacking intensified them. That camera can actually get a bit more resolution out of sensor movements, though the lens might be at its limit already, or focus was still a little off. edit: it's probably the glovebox glass.
- diggan 3y ago> is a whopping 102 megapixels, with all EXIF info intact, taken by a Fujifilm GFX100s I jest, but it seems like that camera is able to take photos up to 400MP, by automatically combining 16 RAW photos taken in succession ("Pixel Shift Multi Shot"). So they did lazy the job just a tiny bit ;)
- marssaxman 3y agoWhat is a "suiting tool"? It's not a term I have heard before, and a quick web search did not turn anything up.
- lucasban 3y agoThey mean that it is a good match, that it the tool suits the situation, or that it is suitable
- cedws 3y agoI'm guessing they didn't want to crack it open, drill or cut through it for fear of contamination?
- irjustin 3y agoThat and any new tools being introduced need to not introduce anything "from earth" otherwise upon analysis you'll get false positives all over the place.
- jnowaczek 3y agoVideo of removing the stuck screws https://images.nasa.gov/details/OSIRIS-REx%20Asteroid%20Sample%20Curation https://images.nasa.gov/details/OSIRIS-REx%20Asteroid%20Samp...
- dtx1 3y agoWhat an epic achievement, congratulations to the NASA Mission Team!
- kkylin 3y agoIn case anyone else wanted to know what they spent these months doing and why it took so much time to take care of those two screws: https://news.arizona.edu/story/nasas-osiris-rex-curation-team-clears-hurdle-access-remaining-bennu-sample?utm_source=uanow&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign= https://news.arizona.edu/story/nasas-osiris-rex-curation-tea...
- whamlastxmas 3y agoTLDR: They have to use hardware from approved tool kits, so the process of making new hardware to unstuck screws is a whole thing
- adolph 3y agoThe fixture they used to remove the bolts is pretty interesting. Looks like a milled aluminum two part clamp for a ratchet with a 3in extension. It is interesting that they claim to have milled their own Torq-set bit but the picture shows a commercial/OTS 1/4" to hex adapter. In response, two new multi-part tools were designed and fabricated to support further disassembly of the TAGSAM head. These tools include newly custom-fabricated bits made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel; the hardest metal approved for use in the pristine curation gloveboxes. https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/11/nasas-osiris-rex-team-clears-hurdle-to-access-remaining-bennu-sample/ https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2024/01/11/nasas-osiris-re... https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/ https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/
- pimlottc 3y agoHow can you tell it’s a commercial bit? The part with writing on it looks like it’s an adapter, the bit itself does not seem to have any visible markings.
- adolph 3y agoSorry for unclarity--that's not my query/assertion. Assertion: looks like a commercial adapter. Query: why use the commercial adapter if you are already milling a custom bit? There are probably some practical answers to this if I gave it enough thought. Like, the CAD file to mill a hex bit was already available to NASA; or, it kept the overall length the same so the clamp could be developed in parallel.
- toast0 3y agoI think they're concerned about the bit wearing the fastener etc. But the adapter has a much more secure mating. I've stripped plenty of screws, but never managed to damage one of these adapters. That said, I've only broken one socket in my life; so I'm not a big tool abuser; maybe someone else has a story of breaking one of these.
- adolph 3y ago
- iJohnDoe 3y agoFTA - Apophis might be on track to smash into planet Earth, but those fears have diminished and scientists anticipate it will pass closer to Earth in 2029 than any object of its size ever has. https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/03/Earth_s_gravity_will_alter_Apophis_orbit_during_2029_flyby https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/03/Earth_s_gr... Zuckerberg’s Bunker Plans Fuel Speculation on Billionaires Building Bunkers https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38866773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38866773
- rusteh1 3y agoIs anyone familiar with the matter able to comment on the use of Torq-set fasteners? Are they a standard for these sort of use cases? They seem to be used frequently in Aerospace? I tend to use Torx whenever possible, are these better? Or should they have used something else to avoid such issues?
- KennyBlanken 3y agoIt's a fastener used mostly in the military, developed by Phillips purely to get the military using its proprietary/patented design to extract as much tax dollars as possible. It is widely reviled by aviation mechanics because it strips at the drop of a hat and is difficult to torque. It is only in use because "it's what we have billions of dollars sunk into existing tools and fastener stock" despite it being wildly inferior to torx, as demonstrated by the fact that NASA needed to make a gigantic fucking C-clamp to keep it from camming out. Consider that the entire point of the Phillips head (which the torq-set is just a different pattern of) is purposefully designed to cam out to limit torque so that someone can't guerilla it so tight the head snaps off. Which is not an issue in aerospace where everything is assembled with calibrated, precision drivers. Using it on a "we critically need to be able to get this apart later" part is beyond asinine on NASA's part. NASA are a bunch of dinosaurs incapable of change. It's really cringe seeing them toot their horns so much about solving a problem that never would have occurred if they weren't using a fastener that even a fresh-out-of-school aircraft mechanic could have told them wasn't appropriate for this application.
- pilina 3y agoNASA got what they deserve. The could just ask every single aircraft mechanic about this one. Especially bloody torq-set. With budget they had. They could machine any head the wanted, and yet they've chosen stupidest one out there.
- vba616 3y agoAccording to the link posted in another comment, they don't look like Torx at all, and the main marketing points are: "Offset cruciform shape with straight wing walls Greater torque transfer Removal walls larger than drive walls Facilitates disassembly without drill outs" https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/ https://www.phillips-screw.com/drive_systems/torq-set/
- jedberg 3y agoThey should have just used some WD-40, would have opened right up!
- uoaei 3y agoWD-40 is not a lubricant, it is a Water Displacer.
- adolph 3y agoGiven the parent comment didn't mention lube, we can say that there was water to displace in the returned sample: Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu sample collected in space and brought to Earth by NASA show evidence of high-carbon content and water https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-bennu-asteroid-sample-contains-carbon-water/ https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-bennu-asteroid-sampl...
- yawpitch 3y agoThe Canadian in me wants to point out that this problem could have been avoided if they’d just used Robertson head.
- beretguy 3y ago> … asteroid Bennu, which is classified as a “potentially hazardous” because it has one in 1,750 chance of crashing into Earth by 2300. I stopped caring about screws after I read this.
- hulitu 3y ago> NASA unlocks $1B canister of asteroid dust Only $1B ? /s