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Curation, spacecraft recovery, and preliminary examination for the Stardust mission: A perspective from the curatorial facility
Author(s) -
Zolensky Michael,
NakamuraMessenger Keiko,
Fletcher Lisa,
See Thomas
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2008.tb00607.x
Subject(s) - spacecraft , cleanroom , perspective (graphical) , astrobiology , plan (archaeology) , sample (material) , engineering , systems engineering , computer science , aeronautics , aerospace engineering , physics , history , archaeology , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , thermodynamics
— We describe briefly some of the challenges to the Stardust mission, curation, and sample preliminary analysis from the perspective of the Curation Office at the Johnson Space Center. Our goal is to inform persons planning future sample returns so that they may learn from both our successes and challenges (and avoid some of our mistakes). The Curation Office played a role in the mission from its inception, most critically assisting in the design and implementation of the spacecraft contamination control plan, and in planning and documenting the recovery of the spacecraft re‐entry capsule in Utah. A unique class 100 cleanroom was built to maintain the returned comet and interstellar samples in clean comfort, and to permit dissection and allocation of samples for analysis.