ARES | Astromaterials Newsletter | OSIRIS-REx News | Volume 6 No. 2

OSIRIS-REx News

Nicole Lunning, OSIRIS-REx Curator

Volume 6 No. 2 • October 2024

Since the last newsletter, the OSIRIS-REx Curation Team completed processing of samples for mission international partner JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). In August 2024, NASA officially transferred those samples to JAXA. We are excited to follow the work of our JAXA colleagues as they move forward with characterization of JAXA's OSIRIS-REx samples!

Figure 1: Photograph taken at the signature exchange for the transfer of the OSIRIS-REx sample to JAXA. From left to right, the photo includes Shogo Tachibana, Tomohiro Usui, Hitoshi Kuninaka, Francis McCubbin, Kathleen Vander Kaaden, Nicole Lunning (photo credit: JAXA).

The NASA OSIRIS-REx curation team has continued to expand and enrich the NASA OSIRIS-REx catalog – this newsletter includes the first update of the catalog since its initial publication in March 2024. In this update, there are over forty newly named samples from inside the TAGSAM (separated from parent samples previously included in the catalog). In addition, samples from external to the TAGSAM head have been added to the catalog. This latter addition was made possible in April when more adhering dust was harvested from the sample canister lid and avionics deck. In addition, over a dozen samples have been XCT scanned since the last newsletter. XCT scans collected of OSIRIS-REx samples for catalog development are available upon request.

Fifty-six sample requests were received in response to our first sample request deadline in June 2024, which dramatically exceeded expectations! These requests are currently under review. The next sample request deadline for OSIRIS-REx samples curated by NASA will follow the spring 2025 Astromaterials Newsletter.

Curation personnel had the honor of giving the 5-word acceptance speech for a Webby People's Voice Winner for "OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return (Official 4K NASA Live Stream)", which showed a live broadcast of the landing of the OSIRIS-REx return capsule in the Utah desert.

Figure 2: Screen capture of 5-word acceptance speech video "ancient rocks, in a glovebox" recorded in the OSIRIS-REx Curation lab. Speech given by Carla Gonzalez (left) and Julia Plummer (right).