New ARES Office by Marilyn Lindstrom

Planetary Materials (now Astromaterials) curation and research have long been the focus of our division at JSC and an ivory tower in the center. Since 1995 Astromaterials and Human Exploration of Space have been the two missions of JSC, yet Astromaterials was not visible in the organization chart, being hidden in the large Space and Life Sciences Directorate. Under Carl Agee's leadership (and with the help of some of our university friends) we are becoming the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Office. We will be on the organization chart and be much more visible both inside and outside NASA. We also will be getting new civil service hires to help us with the expanded workload of future missions. We have already hired Carl Allen as curator and Lindsey Keller to fill one of the science positions advertised in March. We are moving forward on both Astromaterials curation and Astromaterials-Astrobiology research.