It's 10pm Jerry.

Bet Brian May is really excited.

Damn, I missed it. Is there a highlights reel?

I must admit I don't like NASA TV in general.

The vast majority of YT videos are just people talking about how amazing they are and praising each other. After a while I just wears thin.

I am also not a fan of the extreme image manipulation put out by the agency in general. Virtually nothing looks real. Show us the source, then show us the manipulation. That would add a lot of confidence that the whole thing isn't just a lie.

No I hardly watch it for the above reasons.

I have just sampled it over the past few years.

Anyway, being a miserable sod, what is the point of this mission? Plenty of asteroid material here on earth that came for free.

If you're gonna mine asteroids, make sure the bounty more than pays for the trip.

Yeah but it's only bringing a pussy amount back.

Plenty of fragments here that are probably bigger than that payload, many of them of equal provenance I suspect.

And that's just it. They can't be certain where this one came from. So their "we think it was around at the birth of the solar system" is just a guess IMHO.

They must have learnt a few useful things for the future, though. That's where it's worth is I think.

Pass it on to Elon and he'll make a ton of cash and turn the world electric LOL.

NASA TO MAKE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT OF ‘EXCITING NEWS’ ABOUT THE MOON
Flying observatory that made new discovery is able to ‘pick up phenomenon impossible to see with visible light’, space agency notes

NASA will hold a major event to announce an “exciting new discovery” about the Moon, it has said.

The space agency did not reveal details about the discovery but suggested that it “contributes to NASA’s efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration”.

It also said that the discovery had come from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOFIA

SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747 that flies in the high the atmosphere, allowing a built-in, 9-foot telescope to get a view of our solar system and the broader universe.

Because it goes above 99 per cent of the water vapour in the atmosphere, which normally obscures our view of space, the flying observatory is able to “pick up phenomenon impossible to see with visible light”, NASA noted in its announcement.

Nasa’s notice of the event made heavy reference to the Artemis programme, which hopes to send the first woman and next man to the Moon in 2024, with the hope of using it as a base to launch missions to Mars from the 2030s. They will be the first people to set foot on the Moon since 1972.

The briefing will also be attended by Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at Nasa’s Headquarters, further suggesting that the discovery is at least applicable to the space agency’s plans to travel to – and live on – the Moon.

As well as Dr Bleacher, the event will be attended by Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters; Casey Honniball, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; and Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission.

The event will take place at noon eastern time, or 5 pm in the UK, on Monday, 26 October, NASA said.

SOURCE

My money's on them having found naturally-occurring deposits of green cheese, but I may be wrong.

A more extensive vid sequence in this link.

www.sciencealert.com/here-it-is-the-spectacular-video-of-osiris-rex-s-meeting-with-asteroid-bennu

"The returned sample, so hard won, will be invaluable. Scientists hope to use its chemical composition to inform asteroid collision avoidance strategies for Earth, and investigate the possibilities of mining asteroids.

Asteroids such as Bennu are thought to be relatively unchanged since their formation in the earliest days of the Solar System. So, the rocks and dust retrieved by OSIRIS-REx will be a rare window into the pristine chemical composition of the dust cloud that birthed the Sun and planets."

Wow!
Good news for Justin. Looks like they'll be able to fill in a lot more pot holes in roads with the material grabbed from asteroid Bennu. This will make the multi billion dollar mission even more useful.

www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/23/nasa-spacecraft-osiris-rex-asteroid-rubble

"Overstuffed Nasa spacecraft Osiris-Rex losing particles after bingeing on Bennu.
After an asteroid encounter, scientists scrambled to minimize the loss of space rocks as the craft belched rubble"

"The mission’s lead scientist, Dante Lauretta, said Tuesday’s operation collected far more material than expected for return to Earth – in the hundreds of grams. The sample container on the end of the robot arm penetrated so deeply into the asteroid and with such force, however, that rocks got sucked in and became wedged around the rim of the lid."

Hmm, actually I'm wondering if this might turn into a monumental cockup. Rocks wedged around the rim might impede getting the sampler tucked away for the return journey? I've no idea.

From Justin's favourite TV channel....
www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex
"The mission has canceled tomorrow’s Sample Mass Measurement to protect the sample and is now on course to stow the sample as soon as possible. The spacecraft remains in good health and the mission is confident that the spacecraft has collected more than 60 grams of material."

The NASA link also shows a vid sequence of the sample grabber leaking bits of asteroid. They don't seem too worried.

Weren't you thinking that the manner in which they decided to collect the sample was weird?

I am not surprised something has gone a bit wrong.

What was wrong with landing on the surface and doing it slowly?