– The OSIRIS-REx information was specific, possibly a little too far into the weeds. Lots of slides and speech about curation, from lab equipment and handling procedures to particle-request applications and allocation committees. Granted, the point of OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusas, etc. is to recover materials without contamination by Earth air, ground, etc. so it’s relevant to repeat… and repeat… how curation will not introduce any such traces. Note that, once a sample request has been granted, and the material leaves these controlled facilities, it is considered sub-curational quality, and ‘ruined’ for certain types of sample testing. Needless to say, the Project management and JSC curators do not take sample applications lightly. This year will be the first application cycle for Bennu grains (deadline: this June 25), and it looks like they’re erring on the side of caution. As previously recommended (Nittler et al. 2023, #005), some of the Bennu sample has been frozen, to minimize loss of volatiles. This may be taken to the level of proposed filters, put on the lab vents, to recapture any Bennu volatiles that escape anyway. (This will also provide precedent for some future comet sample lab.) One early step is publishing a sample catalog; see curator.jsc.nasa.gov.
– More Antarctic meteorite news. Antarctica is such a fertile ground, cataloging these finds is backlogged, and that’s with the pandemic allowing a pause in new samples. The list of lunar meteorites is getting caught up.
– Mars sampling update: Perseverance is on track, both through the dirt, and into the dirt. Cores drilled include sand and basalt (even air- a sealed tube). Promising bits of Mars include phyllosilicates (serpentines) and carbonates, likely to entomb organics for eons. We know this, from… our asteroidal serpentines and carbonates! They are two primary components of carbonaceous chondrites. Unfortunately, that’s the good news from the Mars sample line. The retrieval, relaunch, and return to Earth has been kicked back to the drawing board; FFRDC, academic, and industry calls for proposals on a return trip are out for ‘bid’ now. Such a mission(s) is/are due late this year, and expected to be downselected early-‘25. The Mars-rock people are also watching, as one might guess, what the Bennu and Ryugu-rock people are doing.
– …and in between Ryugu/Bennu and Mars sample return, we have Phobos. A JAXA scientist presented the Asteroid-Phobos-Mars synergies, by way of JAXA’s MMX mission (Mars Moons eXploration). Launching in 2026, MMX will fly by Deimos, do slow passes at Phobos, then land and take samples. After returning in 2031, we may deduce whether Mars’ two satellites are captured asteroids, fragments of Mars that got knocked off, or who knows. Either way, Phobos, being relatively close, likely contains traces of Mars dust that got knocked off. That’s a sample return of two bodies, and likely faster (it now appears) than the return of the Perseverance samples.
– But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. We have had Ryugu samples for three years now, and a briefing this Tuesday. The big news(for some of you): Ryugu is not only like the CI chondrite meteorites, it basically is CI chondrite material, but better: the CI chondrites all fell to Earth, exposed, before being secured and sealed. Instead, Hayabusa2 stored two samples in prepared metal chambers, with double hermetic seals. The Haya return capsules were processed and opened only in cleanrooms, and one of the Haya2 samples came from the subsurface of Ryugu (the spacecraft blasted a fresh crater, then took a sample from the new crater floor.) Upshot: as suggested last year, Ryugu samples are being proposed as a reference standard for the abundance of elements in the Solar System. Of course, there are some minor issues: there’s only 5.4 gram of Haya2 sample, and not all of that is available of course, and we can debate further, and etc.
One more day…