OSIRIS-REx: Curating Samples from the Carbon rich Asteroid Bennu

Abstract

The OSIRIS REx mission returned 121 g of pristine material from the asteroid Bennu. This talk will describe the how the sample was collected, returned to earth, retrieved, and how it is currently being curated at the NASA Johnson Space Center. In order to keep the samples pristine they are kept under an ultra pure nitrogen atomosphere inside and ISO 5 equivalent clean room. Special care is taken not to expose the samples to oxygen, or organic contaminants. NASA has implemented additional procedures to minimize the likelihood of biological contamination. The presentation will also include a brief description of the preliminary results from initial study of the samples.