Why did it take NASA 3 months just to open two locks on the box containing soil and rocks collected from a place 6.2 billion km from Earth?

After months of searching for an effective method, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have finally succeeded in opening a box containing special materials collected from the asteroid Bennu , which is considered "potentially hazardous". This remarkable event was announced by NASA on January 11.

Accordingly, the collected sample, weighing about 8.8 ounces (equivalent to 250 grams), is the amount of soil and rock collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. Highly appreciated for its scientific value, the sample is also the amount of soil and rock of extraterrestrial origin collected for the first time by a NASA mission.

About 70 grams of rock from Bennu lies just outside, above the sample compartment.

NASA scientists recovered the Bennu sample capsule on September 24, after it hurtled toward Earth from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at speeds of up to 27,000 miles per hour (43,000 kilometers per hour). The seven-year, 4 billion-mile (6.4 billion-kilometer) journey ended safely when the sample capsule parachuted and landed in the Utah desert before being transported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

However, the process of retrieving the sample ran into problems when two of the 35 locking pins became stuck, making it difficult to open the vial. Meanwhile, none of the existing tools could open these stubborn pins. To ensure that no contamination of the sample occurred, NASA had to approve new specialized tools for use in opening the capsule. Ultimately, a solution was found through the use of two surgical forceps-like clamping tools made of stainless steel. These tools had been pre-tested in the lab to ensure they could safely remove the stubborn pins.

The tool used by NASA to open the sample compartment lid.

Now that the capsule has been opened, NASA plans to perform 'some additional disassembly steps' before photographing, extracting, weighing, and processing the remaining samples. Small pieces of rock and soil that were collected from the capsule's lid have already been sent around the world for analysis, and now new findings from inside the jar will soon be explored and thoroughly studied.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, at a press conference on the sample's return, emphasized: "This is the largest sample from a carbon-rich asteroid ever brought back to Earth. Carbon and water molecules are exactly the elements we want to find. They were important elements in the formation of our planet, and they will help us determine the origin of the elements that may have led to life."

According to scientists, the water on Earth is believed to be "older" than our planet itself and may have been brought here by collisions of asteroids and comets. But water is not the only material that asteroids brought to Earth. Materials that helped build the foundations of life may have also been transported to Earth by a meteorite. Bennu, an asteroid classified as a B type, means it is high in carbon and likely contains many of the primitive molecules that were present when life emerged on Earth.

For example, the chemical compound uracil — one of the nucleobases of RNA — was recently discovered on the asteroid Ryugu by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which returned to Earth with its rock sample in 2020. Scientists on the OSIRIS-REx mission now hope to find other similar chemical compounds in Bennu samples.

Almost "swallowed" by asteroid far from Earth

Previously, because Bennu was one of the asteroids that had the potential to collide with Earth, NASA decided to launch the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2016 with the mission to explore this asteroid and bring samples back to Earth for research. It was not until two years later, in 2018, that the spacecraft arrived at the asteroid Bennu.

Stereoscopic image of a rocky outcrop on the surface of asteroid Bennu.

When observed through a telescope, astronomers believe that Bennu's geological structure is quite similar to Itokawa , based on information brought back by Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft in 2010. Accordingly, Bennu is expected to be made up of boulders interspersed with smooth surfaces filled with sand, where the spacecraft can land comfortably.

But NASA researchers were actually 'offside .' When OSIRIS-REx got its first close-up look at Bennu, it discovered a 'hellish landscape' of sharp rocks jutting up, defying Bennu's feeble gravity. This rendered the original landing plan, which relied on a laser altimeter to measure altitude, completely useless.

To find a suitable landing spot on Bennu, scientists operating OSIRIS-REx were forced to use the spacecraft's onboard cameras to meticulously map its surface features down to the centimeter.

Then, with the special help of astrophysicist and famous musician and singer Brian May, a 3D stereoscopic image (made by stitching two photos together to recreate the depth perception of two eyes) was created. It allowed the OSIRIS-REx mission team to assess the safety of potential landing sites.

OSIRIS-REx's landing revealed that Bennu's surface layer has a much lower density than the rest of the asteroid.

After 22 months of careful consideration, researchers settled on a site they named Nightingale , which OSIRIS-REx touched down on October 20, 2020. Instead of landing at the original 50-meter landing site, the truck-sized craft had to struggle to descend into a crater just 10 meters wide. Not to mention, the operations team had to remotely reprogram the spacecraft to complete the mission.

However, even with the 'softest' landing site , the probe still encountered unexpected problems. First, as soon as it touched down on the surface of Bennu, OSIRIS-REx sank about 50 centimeters deep, as if it were being 'swallowed' in a swamp. Only when the spacecraft fired a quick burst of nitrogen gas from its TAGSAM thruster system did OSIRIS-REx's fate end on Bennu.

However, the powerful jets of rock and gravel were ejected from the crater and into space, smothering the spacecraft as it ascended, threatening its safety. Fortunately, there were no incidents with OSIRIS-REx.