NASA Identifies Parachute Wire Mix-Up in OSIRIS-REx Mission
NASA engineers discovered that a wiring mix-up caused a parachute problem during the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. The release triggers for the parachutes were wired incorrectly, resulting in the drogue parachute deploying at 9,000 feet instead of 100,000 feet. The main parachute deployed as expected, allowing for a safe landing and successful sample collection from asteroid Bennu. The issue was attributed to inconsistent naming conventions in the design, which led to the deployment actions occurring out of order. Despite the parachute malfunction, the mission was a success, and the probe is now heading to study asteroid Apophis. NASA will investigate the wiring error once the sample processing is complete.
- NASA engineers got their parachute wires crossed for OSIRIS-REx mission The Register
- NASA Discovers Cause of Chute Glitch in Asteroid Sample Landing Gizmodo
- Crossed wires led to high drama as NASA returned asteroid samples to Earth Ars Technica
- NASA Says Inconsistent Labeling Almost Caused Loss of Asteroid Sample ExtremeTech
- NASA finds likely cause of OSIRIS-REx parachute deployment sequence Phys.org
Want the full story? Read the original reporting
Read on The Register