Astromaterials News
Francis McCubbin, Astromaterials Curator
Volume 5 No. 1 • March 2023
About the Astromaterials Newsletter:
Welcome to the ninth issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter! The Astromaterials Newsletter is a bi-annual publication produced by the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center to inform the sample science community about updates to our policies, collections, and available samples. In particular, the Astromaterials Newsletter will be our exclusive mechanism for announcing new samples or new sample opportunities available to the community across all of our collections, and we publish the Astromaterials Newsletter on the same cadence as the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter.
The primary aim of the Astromaterials Newsletter is to maximize the science returns from our existing collections through better communication and advertisement of sample availability to the scientific community. A big part of that improved communication is to provide updates to the sample analysis community about what is going on in our labs and at JSC that could impact the collections or the timing of sample allocations. Most importantly, the Astromaterials Newsletter was established to provide a fair and transparent process by which the community receives information about available samples across all our collections. As always, details about all of NASA's Astromaterials samples that are available for request can be found within each respective collection's sample catalog, which are available on our website (https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/). Any new samples announced in this issue will also appear within the appropriate sample catalog on our website.
Astromaterials Data Archiving Announcement from the Astromaterials Data Repository
Investigators who produce geochemical data from meteorites or other astromaterials samples are encouraged to utilize the Astromaterials Data Repository (AstroRepo) to openly share their data in compliance with Open Data policies of funding agencies and publishers. AstroRepo is a trusted repository service for researchers to publish and archive astromaterials sample data. Dataset files can be easily submitted via a web interface, and can be kept under moratorium for up to two years. AstroRepo links the datasets to related publications and NASA award numbers.
AstroRepo is part of the Astromaterials Data System, a data infrastructure that stores, curates, and provides access to laboratory data acquired on samples curated in the Astromaterials Collections of NASA's Johnson Space Center. Please feel free to contact AstroRepo at info@astromat.org with any questions. Astromat data curators are available to help you with publishing your data and advise how you can 'rescue' personal or institutional legacy data sets that are in danger of being lost and ensure their long-term impact on scientific advances, making them accessible in a sustainable manner.
Highlights from this issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter:
The Apollo samples from the 73001/2 double-drive tube, first opened as part of the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) Program, are being made available for request by the broader scientific community in this issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter. The 73001/2 samples have undergone preliminary examination by curation and members of the ANGSA Science Team, and a preliminary sample catalog is being released as part of this newsletter. More details on the release of these samples are provided in the Apollo Sample News section of this newsletter.
The Cosmic Dust collection has accessioned the South Pole Water Well (SPWW) micrometeorite collection, and those samples are being released as part of this issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter after the mandatory 8-week cooling off period. The SPWW collection was collected as part of a PI-led investigation with a plan that NASA would accession the material at the end of the investigation. Please see the Cosmic Dust News section of the newsletter for full details.
The Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter has announced an additional 140 Antarctic meteorites available for request from the Dominion Range (DOM) 2018/19 and 2019/20 ANSMET seasons. Please see the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter for all the details.
Thank you for reading the Astromaterials News section of the Astromaterials Newsletter, and I wish you and your families a safe and healthy 2023.