Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation at JSC
Carlton Allen
Astromaterials Curator Manager
Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office
NASA JSC
The summer of 2012 will mark 43 years since the first lunar rocks and soils were brought to Earth by the astronauts of Apollo 11. The Apollo expeditions in all collected 2,196 individual rock, soil and core samples with a total mass of 381.69 kg. These have now been subdivided into over 140,000 subsamples—and we continue to curate them all for NASA and distribute them to a worldwide research community. What an awesome privilege and responsibility!
We have recently honored the career of Jack Warren—retiring after an amazing 45 years, mainly in the Curation organization. In 1969 Jack opened the first container of Apollo samples in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. He went on to help design or operate every one of our Curation labs, and lead the Curation of cosmic dust and space-exposed hardware. Every scientist who studies samples from space owes a debt of gratitude to the professionalism of Jack Warren.
We welcome Angela Green Garcia and Roger Harrington to the Lunar Curation Team. They represent part of the new generation who will build on the work of today’s curators and take lunar sample processing into the 21st century.
Within the next year we will also honor the retirement of Dr. Gary Lofgren, current Lunar Curator and a key member of the lunar science community. Gary has built a distinguished career as a NASA scientist, concentrating for over four decades on the geologic history of the Moon. He has trained Apollo astronauts, conducted high-quality research, led the ongoing lunar Curation effort, and helped plan the future of human exploration. His career in lunar science is unique, and an inspiration for a worldwide community of space scientists and explorers.
Finally we welcome Dr. Ryan Zeigler, who will take over as Lunar Curator with Gary’s retirement. Ryan built his own record as a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, studying the detailed geochemistry of lunar rocks. He applied for the Lunar Curator job from Antarctica, where he was a member of last year’s ANSMET team!