OSIRIS-REx Samples Available for Request

The OSIRIS-REx curation team exhibited impressive persistence, patience, and resilience during disassembly of the flight hardware and initial sample processing, and they endured many surprises and challenges along the way.

You can read more about our journey and that of the OSIRIS-REx Science Team on the OSIRIS-REx blog page. The initial Preliminary Examination of the samples was conducted in collaboration with the OSIRIS-REx mission sample analysis team. This team worked incredibly hard to bring this initial release of the OSIRIS-REx catalog to the scientific community six months after landing of the sample return capsule in Utah. The OSIRIS-REx catalog will evolve in breadth and depth as more samples are named and more information is added about some samples with each future release of the Astromaterials Newsletter.

The official mass of the returned bulk sample is 121.6 grams! Each sample has a sample details page in the OSIRIS-REx Sample Database. The images and parent sample information on the sample details pages may be used to correlate to higher resolution Advanced Imaging and Visualization of Astromaterials images (AIVA images).

The OSIRIS-REx collection is the first NASA Astromaterials collection to have a Sample Conservation Plan. This plan covers long-term conservation to ensure samples are available for future studies, as well as allocation plans and restrictions.

The sample request deadline for OSIRIS-REx samples is Tuesday June 25 2024 at 5 pm central. This deadline will be the only opportunity to request OSIRIS-REx samples in 2024, but we plan to offer deadlines twice a year starting in 2025, in the Spring and Fall, similar to the Apollo and Antarctic Meteorite Collections. The sample request guide and form is available online to aid prospective investigators in the preparation of their requests.

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