Astromaterials News

Francis McCubbin, Astromaterials Curator

Volume 6 No. 2 • October 2024

Changing of the Guard:

This issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter will be my last as the Astromaterials Curator. I will be moving into a new role within the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at JSC, specifically within the Research Office. It has been my honor to serve the Agency and the sample science community as the Astromaterials Curator over the last (almost) 10 years. These collections are a critical resource to the planetary sample science community, and they continue to enable scientists from around the world to make important discoveries about our solar system and beyond. Dr. Jemma Davidson will take the helm as the combined Curation Branch Chief and Astromaterials Curator starting November 1, 2024. This consolidation of roles will empower the Astromaterials Curator to execute their responsibilities as outlined and described in the Curation of Astromaterials NASA Procedural Requirement NPR 7100.5. I have no doubt that Jemma will be a wonderful Astromaterials Curator, and I couldn't be more excited to pass the torch and start my new role in the Research Office.

A Note from the Incoming Astromaterials Curator:

It has been almost eight months since I joined the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office as the new Branch Chief. In that time, I have had the pleasure of working closely with the whole of Curation, particularly the current Astromaterials Curator, Dr. Francis McCubbin. Over the last decade, Francis has made countless contributions to the Curation Office, including the genesis of this newsletter, that have significantly benefited both Curation and the broader science community. We thank Francis for his service to the Astromaterials community and look forward to seeing him flourish in the Research Office. I am both excited and honored to be following in his steps and look forward to serving the global community in this new role.

Jemma Davidson, Curation Branch Chief

About the Astromaterials Newsletter:

Welcome to the twelfth 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 exiting 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 System

The Astromaterials Data System (Astromat) is the primary NASA-sponsored archive for laboratory analyses of returned samples (see NASA's Planetary Science Division's Information and Data Management Policy Supplement to SPD-41A). Astromat supports the extraterrestrial samples community with services that enable sharing, discovery, access, and reuse of data generated by laboratory analysis of astromaterials samples.

The Astromaterials Data Archive (ADA) curates, publishes, and preserves laboratory analytical data acquired as part of NASA's sample return missions and research projects. The ADA accepts data that describe the chemical, physical, petrological, mineralogical, and textural properties of bulk samples, mineral phases, and other components such as chondrules and presolar grains.

The Astromaterials Data Synthesis provides access to over 2 million analytical values acquired over the past 50+ years on lunar samples, meteorites, and other astromaterials samples curated at ARES.

Participate! Opportunities for community engagement are planned for 2024–2025 including webinars, exhibits, and social gatherings at relevant conferences. Sign up for the Astromat Community Mailing List to stay updated on the latest. Please reach out to the Astromat Team at info@astromat.org with any suggestions or needs for customized engagement or training for Astromat use.

Astromat News

The first datasets from the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis are now publicly accessible at the Astromaterials Data Archive (ADA). They include tabular data – isotopes, noble gases; spectral data; XCT, NanoSIMS, and SEM images, 3D SLS scans and models, and much more.

The Astromat Synthesis grew to > 2 million analytical data points. It now contains the entire content of the MetBase database and lab analytical data for ARES collections (Lunar Samples, Antarctic Meteorites, Stardust, Genesis, Cosmic Dust, Hayabusa, Hayabusa2). You can search the Astromat Synthesis database through the Astromat's Search app and download the data of your choice as an integrated dataset.

Astromat will be at AGU 2024 in the exhibit hall. Stop by!

Broad updates for the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office

This fall, we will have a building 31 complex-wide power outage for 1 week that is necessary to complete ongoing construction projects. This timing was selected to optimize both the schedule for completion of the construction projects and the risk to samples and equipment from loss of climate control in the building. All the curation collections will be put into a stable configuration prior to the outage, and all labs will be tested and verified before operations resume. As a result, there may be some delays to sample allocations between now and the Spring. We appreciate your patience as we work around our infrastructure downtime to fulfill approved requests and allocate samples in a safe and timely manner.

Personnel updates in the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office This past June, Dr. Kevin Righter left the agency for a faculty position at the University of Rochester. Kevin joined NASA in November, 2002 and has been a wonderful Antarctic Meteorite Curator and a wonderful colleague throughout his time at NASA. We wish him all the best in his new position. In the interim, I have stepped in to serve as the Antarctic Meteorite Curator until a new permanent Antarctic Meteorite Curator is hired. Although we have paused the pairing group and reclassification work for now, all other activities, including sample allocations and returns, remain active under my tenure as Antarctic Meteorite Curator. In addition, Dr. Marc Fries will no longer continue as the Cosmic Dust Collections Curator. Marc will continue in his roles as the lead for the meteorite falls project and the Raman Spectroscopy Lab in the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office. We thank Marc for all that he has done as the Collection Curator to expand the Cosmic Dust collections. Dr. Michael Zolensky will be serving in the interim role as the Cosmic Dust Collections Curator to fulfill any outstanding Cosmic Dust requests.

Cosmic Dust Lab going on pause for new sample requests At this time, we are pausing any new sample requests for allocation of material from NASA's Cosmic Dust Collections. For any Cosmic Dust sample requests that have come in prior to the publication of this issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter, we will review and fulfill any approved requests with Dr. Michael Zolensky serving in the interim role as Cosmic Dust Curator. During the pause, we will continue to conduct PI inventories, renew sample loan agreements, and handle returning of samples throughout the pause, with Dr. Zolensky being the primary point of contact for those actions. At this time, we cannot estimate when we will start accepting requests for samples from the Cosmic Dust Collections, but please stay tuned to future issues of the Astromaterials Newsletter for updates.

Highlights from this issue:

OSIRIS-REx sample delivered to JAXA In partial fulfillment of a NASA-JAXA MOU, NASA traveled to Japan to deliver JAXA's portion of Bennu samples. This activity occurred in August, 2024, and you can find more details on this momentous occasion on the OSIRIS-REx News page of this issue of the Astromaterials Newsletter.

New Antarctic Meteorites Announced The Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter has announced an additional 219 Antarctic meteorites available for request from the Dominion Range (DOM) 2018/19, 2019/20, and 2023/24 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 remainder of 2024 and a happy start to 2025.