OSIRIS-REx collected a half-pound sample from the surface of the asteroid Bennu in October 2020. The mission’s sample return capsule landed at the ministry on September 24 with the help of a parachute, similar to the training model shown in the August 30 test. The Defense Force’s Utah Test and Training Range is located in the desert outside of Salt Lake City.Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
NASA‘s osiris rex Despite a minor issue with parachute deployment due to mismatched wiring labels, we successfully returned the sample from Bennu. The main parachute compensated and ensured a safe landing, and further investigation is planned to confirm the cause.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule parachuted into the Utah desert on September 24, 2023, safely delivering a container of rocks and dust collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Although the delivery was successful, the landing sequence did not go completely to plan and the small parachute, known as a drogue, did not deploy as expected.
After a thorough review of the descent video and the capsule’s extensive documentation, NASA concluded that due to inconsistent definitions of wiring labels in the design plans, engineers were unable to wire the parachute release trigger and deploy the drogue chute. It was discovered that the signals may have been fired out of order.
A sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after landing in the desert at the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range on September 24, 2023. The sample was collected from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in October 2020.Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The drogue was expected to deploy at an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet. This was designed to slow and stabilize the capsule during its approximately five-minute descent before deploying the main parachute at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. Instead, a signal activated the system at 100,000 feet, which separated the drogue while it was still stuffed into the capsule. When the capsule reached an altitude of 9,000 feet, the drogue deployed. The holding cord had already been severed, so the drogue was quickly released from the capsule. The main parachute deployed as expected and its design was robust enough to stabilize and slow the capsule, allowing him to land safely more than a minute earlier than expected. There were no adverse effects on OSIRIS-REx’s Bennu sample as a result of the unexpected drogue deployment.
In the design plans for the system, the word “main” was used contradictoryly between the device transmitting the electrical signal and the device receiving the signal. On the traffic light side, “main” means the main parachute. In contrast, on the receiver side, “main” was used to refer to the fireworks that would be ignited to release the cover of the parachute’s canister and deploy the drogue. Technicians connected his two main power sources, causing the parachute’s deployment motion to occur out of order.
To confirm the root cause, NASA plans to test the system that releases the parachute. This hardware is currently in one of his glove boxes containing Bennu samples at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Once the on-site curation team completes processing the sample material (the mission’s top priority at this point), NASA engineers will be able to access the parachute’s hardware to examine the cause.
Source: scitechdaily.com
