A NASA spacecraft sent out to collect a sample of rock and dust from an asteroid has nabbed so much that it’s created an unexpected problem.
Rocks are jammed in the device in a way that’s keeping a Mylar flap open, creating a gap that’s letting some of the collected pebbles and dust drift out into space.
“We had a successful sample collection attempt — almost too successful. Material is escaping,” says Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, the principal investigator for the OSIRIS-REx mission. “We think we’re losing a small fraction of material, but it’s more than I’m comfortable with. I was pretty concerned when I saw these images coming in.”
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