Visit to JSC/NASA in June & August: JAXA prepares to receive Bennu samples from JSC/NASA

This month is an exciting time for all of us―NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (O-REx) will return to Earth on September 24th with the samples collected from the asteroid Bennu! In JAXA curation, we have been preparing to receive a fraction of O-REx returned samples from JSC/NASA based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two agencies. To coordinate the sample allocation from JSC/NASA to JAXA, several JAXA curators and Prof. Tachibana (JAXA/Univ of Tokyo) visited the JSC/NASA on June 12-16 and August 9-11. We discussed the development of sample containers to be able to contain the JAXA sample holders in collaboration with JSC/NASA. We also discussed sample allocation procedures in detail coming up next month. The allocated samples will be hand-delivered to JAXA next year.

At curation, we have been preparing new clean chambers that are designed based on the Hayabusa2 ones to process and store the O-REx samples. The chambers will be ready early next year.