To prepare for exploring the Moon during NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency is conducting a week-long field test in the lunar-like landscape of San Francisco Volcanic Field near Flagstaff, Arizona […]
Sample Return
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Away Teams & Field Reports, Citizen Science / Open Science, Education and Outreach, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Press Release, Sample Return, Space Life Science
openVertebrate Project: Open Access CT Scans To Thousands Of Natural History Specimens
Editor’s note: When we begin to study the variety iof life forms on other worlds we’ll need to have a way to catalog what we have discovered, make an image […]
Posted inExploration Gear & Tech, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Status Report
Mars Astrobiology Rover Perseverance’s Sample Depot Portrait
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this portrait of its recently completed sample depot using its Mastcam-Z camera on Jan. 31, 2023, the 693rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
A Global Atlas Of Subsurface Microbiomes Reveals Phylogenetic Novelty, Large Scale Biodiversity Gradients, And A Marine-terrestrial Divide
Subsurface environments constitute one of Earth’s largest habitats for microbial life, yet differences between surface and subsurface microbiomes and between marine and terrestrial microbiomes remain unclear.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Conferences and Meetings, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Sample Return, Status Report
Extraterrestrial Materials Analysis Group (ExMAG) Spring 2024 Meeting
May 13–15, 2024Houston, Texas/Virtual
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Exploration Gear & Tech, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Sample Return, Status Report
Asteroid (101955) Bennu In The Laboratory: Properties Of The Sample Collected By OSIRIS-REx
On 24 September 2023, the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission dropped a capsule to Earth containing approximately 120 g of pristine carbonaceous regolith from Bennu.
Posted inMissions & Hardware, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Sample Return, Status Report
Astrobiology/Astrogeology Sample Return Update: Likely Cause of OSIRIS-REx Parachute Issue
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule landed under parachute in the Utah desert on Sept. 24, 2023, and safely delivered a cannister of rocks and dust collected from near-Earth asteroid Bennu. […]
Posted inMars, Missions & Hardware, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Sample Return, Status Report
NASA Mars Sample Return (MSR) Independent Review Board-2 Final Report
MSR IRB-2 Charter
Posted inComets and Asteroids, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Press Release, Sample Return
OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Arrives At Johnson Space Center
The first U.S. asteroid sample, delivered by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to Earth on Sept. 24, has arrived at its permanent home at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Sample Return, Status Report
Call For Membership On The Sample Receiving Project Measurement Definition Team for Mars Sample Return
The Measurement Definition Team for Mars Sample Return (MDT) is chartered to assess the measurement and instrumentation needs for the MSR Sample Receiving Project (SRP) facility that will process samples […]