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When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule blasted through the upper atmosphere, it marked the first time the space agency brought material from an asteroid back to Earth. Hundreds of thousands tuned in to the live broadcast on September 24 so they could watch the helicopter land at the Utah Test and Training Center. But about ten minutes before the box was put down, the curious viewers may have noticed something unusual – when the ground manager called and ordered the parachute of the vehicle to be deployed.. .nothing happened.
Now NASA knows why it didn’t work as expectedand eventually become a Global problem that we know few in this audience have encountered themselves from time to time.
In simple words, the name “main” was used randomly to mark both the device that installed the drogue chute, and the pyrotechnic charge that was used to cut its line. During the assembly these two connections got mixed up, when the avionics cabinet ordered it to be installed, it ended up breaking its cable while it was still stored in the plane.
You can probably guess what happened next. At the height where the parachute should have cut off, the door opened and the already severed runway flew out.
It may have been a mistake that ended the mission, but thankfully, the spacecraft eventually landed and returned safely, albeit without using its thruster. speeding drogue car. Apparently the main parachute was strong enough to handle the speed setting. By the time the box reached the ground it had reached the speed it should have touched down, and the samples were safely recovered, although its rapid descent character landed about a minute ahead of schedule.
We’ve been watching with interest as OSIRIS-REx reaches out and captures some of Bennu in 2020, and now that the samples are in the hands of scientists, we’re even closer to learning about the nature of these near-Earth asteroids.