HAYABUSA SAMPLE CURATION

In 2010, the Hayabusa sample return capsule (SRC) will return to Earth (at the Utah Test and Training Range), and be flown immediately to the Curation Laboratory at ISAS, near Tokyo. Once safely at ISAS, the canister can be opened and the asteroid harvest will be inspected. The samples must be maintained at a class 10 clean room environment, or better, during this deintegration. The remaining portions of the SRC will remain in another lab for the inevitable characterization of the effects of exposure to contamination and the space environment, including surveys of the micrometeorite impact record. The details of these latter efforts are to be determined.

Hayabusa asteroid sample analysis will be carried out in three major sequential phases. The first phase involves nondestructive preliminary examination of the sample repositories within the SRC. This task will be accomplished using mainly light optical techniques, and will have as the primary goal the documentation of the state of the samples, location and identification of the most critical samples to be analyzed, and selection of the samples to be preserved for distant, future analyses (posterity samples). The samples will be transferred into a stainless steel gloved cabinet with a constant flow of dry nitrogen. The constant flow of dry nitrogen is essential to prevent mineralogical and physical alteration of the samples. Samples can be removed from the cabinet for brief periods into the class 100 clean room environment permitting dissection and photography.

The second phase will be an intensive preliminary investigation of the state and principal characteristics of the asteroid sample, and will be performed over a 12 month period by the Hayabusa Science Team. All preliminary work will be performed in Japan.

The third phase includes all sample analyses, both non-destructive and destructive, to be performed by scientists worldwide. Individual samples will be dissected (if required), containerized, and allocated. To facilitate dissemination of the asteroid sample, a portion of the asteroid harvest will be transferred to the Curation Facility at the Johnson Space Center.