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NASA NTRS2006

LAD-C: A large area debris collector on the ISS

The Large Area Debris Collector (LAD-C) is a 10 sq m aerogel and acoustic sensor system under development by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with main collaboration from the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office at Johnson Space Center, JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Chiba University (Japan), ESA Space Debris Office, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Kent at Canterbury (UK). The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) has assumed the responsibility for having the system manifested and deployed on the International Space Station (ISS), and then having it retrieved and returned to Earth after one to two years. LAD-C will attempt to utilize the ISS as a scientific platform to characterize the near-Earth meteoroid and orbital debris environment in the size regime where little data exist. In addition to meteoroid and orbital debris sample return, the acoustic sensors will record impact time, location, signal strength, and acoustic waveform data of the largest collected samples. A good time-dependent meteoroid and orbital debris flux estimate can be derived. Analysis of the data will also enable potential source identification of some of the collected samples. This dynamical link can be combined with laboratory composition analysis of impact residuals extracted from aerogel to further our understanding of orbital debris population, and the sources of meteoroids, asteroids and comets.

Liou, J.-C.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Cosmochemical implications of the physical processing of cometary nuclei

Comets are not necessarily pristine nebular and interstellar material, despite a common perception to that effect. Alteration processes may occur during comet formation in the outer planet region, during their dispersal to or residence within the Oort cloud, and after their return to the planetary region. Processes that may have significantly modified cometary nuclei include heating, impacts, and irradiation. Possible consequences include phase changes in ices, hydration reactions in silicates, synthesis of organic compounds, collisional disruption and re-accretion, shock and irradiation effects in minerals and ices, cosmogenic nuclide formation, redistribution or loss of volatiles, and formation of a refractory veneer. A model of cometary nuclei that emerges from these considerations provides a framework for understanding observations of comets and future samples.

Mcsween, Harry Y., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2026

Adaptive Curation at NASA Johnson Space Center: Preparing for Artemis Samples by Leveraging Proven Practices and Innovative Solution

The proper curation of returned astromaterial samples is essential to ensure that high-quality scientific investigations can be conducted for decades, enabling future generations to address evolving research questions. The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA Johnson Space Center (hereafter JSC Curation) is responsible for curating all of NASA’s extraterrestrial samples. Under the governing document, NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) 7100.5 “Curation of Extraterrestrial Materials”, JSC Curation is charged with “The curation of all extraterrestrial material under NASA control, including future NASA missions.” The Directive goes on to define Curation as including “...documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for research, education, and public outreach.” JSC Curation has a long-standing legacy of curating extraterrestrial materials, including but not limited to Apollo and Luna lunar samples, Genesis solar wind samples, Stardust comet samples, asteroid samples (Hayabusa1, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx), and Antarctic Meteorite samples from a variety of parent bodies. Building on this foundation, the Artemis program introduces new challenges and opportunities for sample curation, requiring both the application of proven practices and the development of innovative solutions. The Artemis Collection will be curated using established protocols refined through decades of experience with Apollo and subsequent sample collections, including but not limited to the utilization of cleanrooms, custom nitrogen gloveboxes, specialized storage containers and tools; all of which have strict material utilization and prohibition requirements. These practices provide a robust framework for contamination control, documentation, and long-term preservation. However, Artemis samples may present unique scientific and operational requirements, including enhanced contamination control measures (relative to Apollo) driven by evolving science objectives. To meet these needs, JSC Curation is actively developing new technologies and protocols that extend beyond traditional approaches, ensuring that the integrity of samples is maintained under increasingly stringent standards. One critical area of innovation is the development of cold sample curation capabilities. Certain Artemis samples, particularly those from Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) and cold environments, are expected to contain ices and volatile components that require preservation and handling at sub-zero or even cryogenic temperatures. JSC Curation is leveraging best practices from the cold and cryogenic sample industries, as well as other government agencies and academic experts, to design facilities and handling procedures that maintain sample integrity while enabling scientific access. The goal is to develop capabilities to allow researchers to investigate volatiles and other temperature-sensitive materials while minimizing chemical and physical alterations from their returned state. In summary, adaptive curation at JSC combines the reliability of proven methodologies with forward-looking innovations to meet the scientific and operational demands of Artemis. Through enhanced contamination control, advanced cold curation capabilities, and an understanding of known and evolving future science priorities, NASA is preparing to maximize the scientific return from Artemis samples and preserve their value for generations of researchers.

Andrea D Harrington↗
NASA NTRS2001

Odyssey Comet Nucleus Orbiter: The Next Step in Cometary Exploration

Cometary nuclei are the most primitive bodies in the solar system, containing a cosmo-chemical record of the primordial solar nebula. Flyby missions to comets, such as those that encountered Comet Halley in 1986, provide a glimpse at this record. However, to study a cometary nucleus in detail requires a rendezvous mission, i.e., a nucleus orbiter. Only an orbiter provides the ability to map the entire nucleus surface at high resolution, to study the complex chemistry in the cometary coma and its variation with time, and to determine the mass and bulk density of the nucleus, key parameters in understanding how small bodies first formed in the solar nebula. A nucleus orbiter also provides the opportunity to sense the nucleus surface in preparation for more ambitious landing and sample return missions in the future. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Weissman, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS2023

Ryugu Asteroid Sample Return Provides A Natural Laboratory for Primordial Chemical Evolution

The samples returned from near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu provide a pristine record of the 4.6 billion years since the birth of the Solar System. The Hayabusa2 initial analysis team has integrated a range of analytical techniques to investigate Ryugu’s organic chemistry. Here, we highlight their latest findings, the potential questions which may be answered, and provide an overview of new prospects in the decade to come.

Asteroids↗
NASA NTRS2024

The Relationship Between Volatile Element Abundances and Iron Carrying Capacity in Lunar Volcanic and Impact Vapors

The highly volatile elements (e.g. H, C, S, Cl) released during lunar volcanism provide important insights into the bulk volatile composition of the Moon. Once erupted, some fraction of the species containing these elements may have migrated to the poles where they could have become sequestered in shadowed cold traps such as those found near the lunar South pole. The volatiles trapped in the lunar South pole are of great interest to the upcoming Artemis missions, which will be operating nearby and could sample some of those materials. Volcanic vapor deposits in the polar regions might also be supplemented by volatiles from other sources both exogenous (i.e. comets) and endogenous (i.e. remobilization of lunar volatiles by impact). Characterizing these endogenous sources is challenging because the highly volatile elements often leave little trace behind in the rocks themselves, which are inherently refractory by nature. Minerals are found on vug, vesicle, or fracture surfaces that have characteristics consistent with phases formed via direct deposition of a vapor, as opposed to crystallization from a liquid or via solid state decomposition. One common vapor-deposited species is metallic Fe, typically observed as subhedral to euhedral crystals found on vug or vesicle walls in mare basalts and on select breccia clast surfaces in regolith soil samples returned from the Moon. A particularly striking example is seen below in Fig. 1, where numerous Fe crystals are deposited onto the wall of a vug in Apollo 17 basalt sample 71036. Euhedral Fe crystals are not very common in Apollo breccia samples, though this may be from the limited number of systematic searches that have been performed. However, when Fe crystals are found, they can occur in extremely high abundance(e.g., sample 15402 which was specifically selected because of its numerous Fe crystals, was found to have a clast with 477 euhedral Fe crystals in a 570 x 570 μm area). What struck us as interesting about this was not only that it takes a large amount of Fe to make these crystal-rich deposits, but also that these crystal-rich deposits are not ubiquitous, and therefore they must be controlled by some aspect of their depositional conditions that varies. Since those conditions are inherently difficult to investigate and are critically interesting, we used thermochemical modeling as a tool to investigate the relationship between vapor-deposited Fe and various intensive and extensive parameters. We assumed that a high abundance of Fe in the vapor is required to form these crystals, thus the mass of Fe in the vapor was used to determine the plausibility of the vapor-deposited, euhedral Fe crystals observed in Apollo samples.

thermodynamics↗
NASA NTRS2016

Final Report: Laser-Based Optical Trap for Remote Sampling of Interplanetary and Atmospheric Particulate Matter

Applicability to Early Stage Innovation NIAC Cutting edge and innovative technologies are needed to achieve the demanding requirements for NASA origin missions that require sample collection as laid out in the NRC Decadal Survey. This proposal focused on fully understanding the state of remote laser optical trapping techniques for capturing particles and returning them to a target site. In future missions, a laser-based optical trapping system could be deployed on a lander that would then target particles in the lower atmosphere and deliver them to the main instrument for analysis, providing remote access to otherwise inaccessible samples. Alternatively, for a planetary mission the laser could combine ablation and trapping capabilities on targets typically too far away or too hard for traditional drilling sampling systems. For an interstellar mission, a remote laser system could gather particles continuously at a safe distance; this would avoid the necessity of having a spacecraft fly through a target cloud such as a comet tail. If properly designed and implemented, a laser-based optical trapping system could fundamentally change the way scientists designand implement NASA missions that require mass spectroscopy and particle collection.

Laser↗
NASA NTRS2010

Reactive Sequencing for Autonomous Navigation Evolving from Phoenix Entry, Descent, and Landing

Virtual Machine Language (VML) is an award-winning advanced procedural sequencing language in use on NASA deep-space missions since 1997, and was used for the successful entry, descent, and landing (EDL) of the Phoenix spacecraft onto the surface of Mars. Phoenix EDL utilized a state-oriented operations architecture which executed within the constraints of the existing VML 2.0 flight capability, compatible with the linear "land or die" nature of the mission. The intricacies of Phoenix EDL included the planned discarding of portions of the vehicle, the complex communications management for relay through on-orbit assets, the presence of temporally indeterminate physical events, and the need to rapidly catch up four days of sequencing should a reboot of the spacecraft flight computer occur shortly before atmospheric entry. These formidable operational challenges led to new techniques for packaging and coordinating reusable sequences called blocks using one-way synchronization via VML sequencing global variable events. The coordinated blocks acted as an ensemble to land the spacecraft, while individually managing various elements in as simple a fashion as possible. This paper outlines prototype VML 2.1 flight capabilities that have evolved from the one-way synchronization techniques in order to implement even more ambitious autonomous mission capabilities. Target missions for these new capabilities include autonomous touch-and-go sampling of cometary and asteroidal bodies, lunar landing of robotic missions, and ultimately landing of crewed lunar vehicles. Close proximity guidance, navigation, and control operations, on-orbit rendezvous, and descent and landing events featured in these missions require elaborate abort capability, manifesting highly non-linear scenarios that are so complex as to overtax traditional sequencing, or even the sort of one-way coordinated sequencing used during EDL. Foreseeing advanced command and control needs for small body and lunar landing guidance, navigation and control scenarios, work began three years ago on substantial upgrades to VML that are now being exercised in scenarios for lunar landing and comet/asteroid rendezvous. The advanced state-based approach includes coordinated state transition machines with distributed decision-making logic. These state machines are not merely sequences - they are reactive logic constructs capable of autonomous decision making within a well-defined domain. Combined with the JPL's AutoNav software used on Deep Space 1 and Deep Impact, the system allows spacecraft to autonomously navigate to an unmapped surface, soft-contact, and either land or ascend. The state machine architecture enabled by VML 2.1 has successfully performed sampling missions and lunar descent missions in a simulated environment, and is progressing toward flight capability. The authors are also investigating using the VML 2.1 flight director architecture to perform autonomous activities like rendezvous with a passive hypothetical Mars sample return capsule. The approach being pursued is similar to the touch-and-go sampling state machines, with the added complications associated with the search for, physical capture of, and securing of a separate spacecraft. Complications include optically finding and tracking the Orbiting Sample Capsule (OSC), keeping the OSC illuminated, making orbital adjustments, and physically capturing the OSC. Other applications could include autonomous science collection and fault compensation.

asteroid↗
NASA NTRS2007

Organics Captured from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft

Organics found in Comet Wild 2 samples show a heterogeneous and unequilibrated distribution in abundance and composition. Some are similar, but not identical, to those in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and carbonaceous meteorites. A new class of aromatic-poor organic material is also present. The organics are rich in O and N compared to meteoritic organics. Aromatic compounds are present, but the samples tend to be relatively poorer in aromatics than meteorites and IDPs. D and 15N suggest that some organics have an interstellar/protostellar heritage. While the variable extent of modification of these materials by impact capture is not yet fully constrained, a remarkably diverse suite of organic compounds is present and identifiable within the returned samples.

Sandford, Scott A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Searching for Amino Acids in Meteorites and Comet Samples

Chemistry plays an important role in the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology, which strives to understand the origin, distribution, and evolution of life throughout the universe. Chemical techniques are used to search for and characterize the basic ingredients for life, from the elements through simple molecules and up to the more complex compounds that may serve as the ingredients for life. The Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at NASA Goddard uses state-of-the-art laboratory analytical instrumentation in unconventional ways to examine extraterrestrial materials and tackle some of the big questions in astrobiology. This talk will discuss some of the instrumentation and techniques used for these unique samples, as well as some of our most interesting results. The talk will present two areas of particular interest in our laboratory: (1) the search for chiral excesses in meteoritic amino acids, which may help to explain the origin of homochirality in life on Earth; and (2) the detection of amino acids and amines in material returned by NASA's Stardust mission, which rendevouzed with a cornet and brought back cometary particles to the Earth.

Cook, Jamie Elsila↗
NASA NTRS2010

Pieces of Other Worlds - Extraterrestrial Samples for Education and Public Outreach

During the Year of the Solar System spacecraft from NASA and our international partners will encounter two comets; orbit the asteroid Vesta, continue to explore Mars with rovers, and launch robotic explorers to the Moon and Mars. We have pieces of all these worlds in our laboratories, and their continued study provides incredibly valuable "ground truth" to complement space exploration missions. Extensive information about these unique materials, as well as actual lunar samples and meteorites, are available for display and education. The Johnson Space Center (JSC) has the unique responsibility to curate NASA's extraterrestrial samples from past and future missions. Curation includes documentation, preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples for research, education, and public outreach. At the current time JSC curates six types of extraterrestrial samples: (1) Moon rocks and soils collected by the Apollo astronauts (2) Meteorites collected on US expeditions to Antarctica (including rocks from the Moon, Mars, and many asteroids including Vesta) (3) "Cosmic dust" (asteroid and comet particles) collected by high-altitude aircraft (4) Solar wind atoms collected by the Genesis spacecraft (5) Comet particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft (6) Interstellar dust particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft These rocks, soils, dust particles, and atoms continue to be studied intensively by scientists around the world. Descriptions of the samples, research results, thousands of photographs, and information on how to request research samples are on the JSC Curation website: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/ NASA provides a limited number of Moon rock samples for either short-term or long-term displays at museums, planetariums, expositions, and professional events that are open to the public. The JSC Public Affairs Office handles requests for such display samples. Requestors should apply in writing to Mr. Louis Parker, JSC Exhibits Manager. Mr. Parker will advise successful applicants regarding provisions for receipt, display, and return of the samples. All loans will be preceded by a signed loan agreement executed between NASA and the requestor's organization. Email address: louis.a.parker@nasa.gov Sets of twelve thin sections of Apollo lunar samples and sets of twelve thin sections of meteorites are available for short-term loan from JSC Curation. The thin sections are designed for use in college and university courses where petrographic microscopes are available for viewing. Requestors should contact the Ms. Mary Luckey, Education Sample Curator. Email address: mary.k.luckey@nasa.gov

Allen, Carlton C.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Annual Report 2004

Once or twice in an age, a year comes along that the historians proclaim as an Annus Mirabilis - a year of wonders. For the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2004 was just that sort of time. From beginning to end, it was a nonstop experience of wondrous events in space. Imagine that two robot rovers embark on cross-country rambles across Mars, scrutinizing rocks for signs of past water on the now-arid world. A flagship spacecraft brakes into orbit at Saturn to begin longterm surveillance of the ringed world, preparing to drop a sophisticated probe to the surface of its haze-shrouded largest moon. Another craft makes the closest-ever pass by the nucleus of a comet, collecting sample particles as it goes. Two new space telescopes peer into the depths of the universe far beyond our solar system, viewing stars, nebulas and galaxies in invisible light beyond the spectrum our eyes can see. A pair of instruments is lofted on a NASA Earth-orbiting satellite to monitor air quality and the protective layer of ozone blanketing our home planet. A small probe brings samples of the solar wind to Earth for in-depth study. While JPL was absorbed with all of these ventures on other worlds, NASA and the White House unveiled an ambitious new plan of space exploration. The Vision for Space Exploration announced in January foresees a program of robotic and astronaut missions leading to a human return to the Moon by 2020, and eventual crewed expeditions to Mars. The vision also calls for more robotic missions to the moons of the outer planets; spaceborne observatories that will search for Earth-like planets around other stars and explore the formation and evolution of the universe; and continued study of our home planet. In order to accomplish all of this, NASA must perfect many as-yet-uninvented technologies and space transportation capabilities. JPL has a great deal to bring to this vision. Robotic exploration of Mars will lead the way for missions that will carry women and men to the red planet. Our engineers and scientists are formulating spacecraft that could use nuclear power to enable exploration missions of the future. And even now we are designing formations of space telescopes that will capture family portraits of the planets around neighboring stars. Those are only some of the ways that the Laboratory is contributing to NASA's broader goals. During 2004, JPL made a distinctive contribution to agencywide initiatives in areas such as safety, NASA transformation, the agency's Internet portal and NASA's Explorer Schools programs. Years like 2004 pose a special challenge for us. It would be easy to say that this was a once-in-a-decade high point of mission activities, but I believe that this would miss an opportunity. We are fortunate to have many space projects in the works that have the promise of being just as exhilarating as the great mission successes that we celebrated this year. The challenge and opportunity for us now is to make every year like this one.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAS↗
NASA NTRS2007

Optical Property Measurements on the Stardust Sample Return Capsule

The Advanced Materials for Exploration (AME) task Materials Analysis of Returned Hardware from Stardust received funding to perform non-destructive analyses of the non-primary science hardware components of the Stardust sample return capsule. These components were (a) the blunt body reentry heatshield, encased in Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA); (b) the backshell of Super Lightweight Ablator 561 (SLA-561) material handpacked into phenolic Flexcore and coated with CV-1100 silicone; (c) the rope seal used in between the heatshield and backshell; (d) the internal multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets; and (e) parts of the Kevlar straps left attached to the backshell. These components were analyzed to determine the materials' durability in the space environment. The goals of the task were (a) to determine how the various materials from which the components were built weathered the extreme temperatures and harsh space environment during the capsule's nearly 7-year voyage to and from its rendezvous with Comet Wild 2 and (b) to provide lessons-learned data for designers of future missions.

Finckenor, Miria↗
NASA NTRS2006

Constraints from Comets

Crystalline silicates identified in the laboratory examinations of cometary interplanetary dust particles, in Stardust particles, and in the IR spectra of comets and protoplanetary disks typically have high Mg and low Fe contents. In contrast, the amorphous silicates in IDPs and comets are predominantly Fe-rich. Mg-rich crystalline silicates are hypothesized to form by heating of amorphous silicates at temperatures above 1000 K. Annealing does not change the stoichiometry, i.e., the chemistry of the grains. Therefore, annealing is not expected to change an Fe-bearing amorphous silicate into a Mg-rich crystal. We discuss this challenge to the annealing scenario, review the condensation scenarios, and discuss the possibility that Fe reduction, a process thought to contribute in chondrule-formation, is the missing link between Fe-rich amorphous silicates and Mg rich crystalline silicates. We discuss the time scales for these processes in terms of time dependent 2D models of disks (by Gail & collaborators) and in terms of shocks. We mention the Stardust sample return results on Mg-rich crystalline silicates.

Wooden, Diane H.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV: Asteroids, Meteors, and Comets

The session "Asteroids, Meteors, and Comets" contained the following reports:Ejecta Generation and Redistribution on 433 Eros: Modeling Ejecta Launch Conditions; Macroscopic Voids in Small Asteroids: Effects of Cohesion; The Seismic Effect of Impacts on Asteroid Surface Morphology: Early Modeling Results; Photometric Studies of Eros from NEAR Data; Quantitative Aspects of Space Weathering: Implications for Regolith Breccia Meteorites and Asteroids; Diversity of Types of Hydrated Minerals on C-Class Asteroids; Mineralogical Variations Among High Albedo E-Type Asteroids: Implications for Asteroid Igneous Processes; Multi-Wavelength Observations of 2100 Ra-Shalom: Radar and Lightcurves; What are the P-type Asteroids Made Of?; Sodium Overabundance in Meteoroids from Meteor Spectroscopy; Migration Processes and Volatiles Inventory to the Inner Planets; Characterization of the Surface Properties of MUSES-C/Hayabusa Spacecraft Target; Asteroid 25143 Itokawa; and Sample Return Science by Hayabusa Near-Earth Asteroid Mission.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1988

The ridged plains as a possible landing site for the Mars sample return mission

Differences in the shape and density of crater size-frequency distribution curves have been interpreted as indicators of different impactor populations. Within the inner solar system two production populations are seen. The signature of the first is recorded in the heavily cratered regions of the Moon, Mercury, and Mars and displays a multi-sloped distribution curve which cannot be described by a power law function at all crater diameters. The signature of the second population is seen in the lightly cratered lunar and Martian plains, where the size-frequency distribution curve can be approximated by a power law function of -3 differential slope in the 8- to 70-km diameter range. Based on data obtained from the Apollo lunar samples and crater flux estimates, the first population is believed to have been emplaced during the period of heavy bombardment which, at least on the Moon, ended about 3.8 BY ago. The second population has dominated the cratering record since that time and is commonly assumed to be due to comets and asteroids.

Barlow, Nadine G.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Olivine from Comet Wild 2

We have analyzed a collection of the Comet Wild 2 coma grains returned by the NASA Stardust Mission, using micro-area Laue diffraction equipment. The purpose of the diffraction experiment is to permit the structure refinement of olivine including site occupancies. In addition to the intrinsic importance of the olivine structures for revealing the thermal history of Wild 2 materials, we wish to test reports that olivine recovered after hypervelocity capture in silica aerogel has undergone a basic structural change due to capture heating [1]. The diffraction equipment placed at beam line BL- 4B1 of PF, KEK was developed with a micropinhole and an imaging plate (Fuji Co. Ltd.) using the Laue method combined with polychromatic X-ray of synchrotron radiation operated at energy of 2.5 GeV. The incident beam is limited to 1.6 m in diameter by a micropinhole set just upstream of the sample [2, 3]. It is essential to apply a microbeam to obtain diffracted intensities with high signal to noise ratios. This equipment has been successfully applied to various extraterrestrial materials, including meteorites and interplanetary dust particles [4]. The Laue pattern of the sample C2067,1,111,4 (Fig. 1) was successfully taken on an imaging plate after a 120 minute exposure (Fig. 2).

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2004

The Stardust: A Successful Encounter with the Remarkable Comet Wild 2

On January 2, 2004 the Stardust spacecraft completed a close flyby of comet Wild2 (P81). Flying at a relative speed of 6.1 km/s within 237km of the 5 km nucleus, the spacecraft took 72 close-in images, measured the flux of impacting particles and did in-situ compositional analysis of freshly released dust with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The primary goal of the mission is to collect >500 particles >15 m diameter and return them to Earth on January 15, 2006. The cometary particles ranging in size from a micron to approx.100 microns were collected in low density silica aerogel. After returning over a hundred 2x4x3 cm aerogel collection cells will be processed at the curatorial facility at the NASA Johnson Space Center and 5 to 100 micron size extracted cometary particles will be distributed to analysts by a system that will be based on the allocation procedures for cosmic dust, Antarctic meteorites and lunar samples.

Brownlee, D. E.↗