Charter for Astromaterials Allocation Review Board (AARB)
NASA solicits and receives proposals for the loan of samples for the purpose of research and public outreach from its collections of Astromaterials curated at Johnson Space Center (JSC). The AARB provides unbiased peer review for such proposals, under the terms of this Charter.
Meeting Dates & Sample Request Deadlines
Lunar Sample Requests
The Lunar sample request deadline will be Friday April 19th at 5 PM Houston time. All requests received after this date will not be considered until our next sample allocation period in the Fall of 2024. Please refer to this page for an updated date for the next submission period.
Antarctic Meteorite Sample Requests
The next sample request deadline for Antarctic Meteorites is April 19, 2024. Requests received by this deadline will be reviewed in the May meeting by the Antarctic Meteorite Allocation Panel. Review of requests received after April 19th may be delayed until the Fall of 2024.
Stardust Sample Requests
The sample request deadline is the 15th of each month. Requests will be considered each month by the Sample Allocation Committee.
All requests must follow the guidelines found in the Checklist to Request Stardust Samples document. Refer to the Stardust Investigators Guidebook for further instructions for Principal Investigators.
Cosmic Dust Sample Requests
New Availability of Samples from Dry Stratospheric Collectors
A new pair of foam-covered small area collectors along with a pair of conventionally-oiled small area collectors were flown on a NASA WB-57 aircraft at high altitude (> 48000 ft.) from Ellington AFB in Houston to Nellis AFB in Nevada between October 2012 and January 2013. The collectors logged 95 total collection hours at high altitude during this time frame, far more than we generally fly a cosmic dust collector surface. Read more details about these samples. These samples are available for allocation to qualified investigators.
The 2012 Draconid Storm Potentially Sampled by NASA ER-2 Aircraft
NASA ER-2 Aircraft collected dust from the stratosphere around the time of the 2012 Draconid meteor storm. Read more about the Draconid samples. These samples are available for allocation to qualified investigators.
Requesting Cosmic Dust Samples
Requests will be considered each month by the Cosmic Dust Sample Allocation Committee. For more information about requesting samples for this collection, please visit the Cosmic Dust Requesting Samples section.
Hayabusa Sample Requests
Hayabusa Sample Requests are now being accepted by the Curator at JSC. Requests will be considered each month by the Hayabusa Sample Allocation Committee.
Refer to the Hayabusa Investigators Guidebook for further instructions for Principal Investigators.
Genesis Sample Requests
Requests may be submitted at any time via the Genesis Sample Allocation Request Form. Requests for Genesis materials are logged in and acknowledged within a few days of receipt by the curator.