Dr. Carlton Allen
New Astromaterials
Curator

Dr. Carlton Allen recently joined NASA at JSC as the Astromaterials Curator. In this job Dr. Allen is responsible for the curation and distribution of extraterrestrial samples including the lunar rocks and soils, Antarctic meteorites, and cosmic dust. He also oversees preparations for future samples to be returned by spacecraft from a comet (Stardust), the solar wind (Genesis), and an asteroid (Muses C). Finally, Dr. Allen oversees JSC's research and development devoted to Mars sample return.

Dr. Allen's research career has spanned a wide range in planetary and terrestrial geology. As a graduate student and postdoc he focused on the Martian surface. Combining orbital imagery, field studies in Iceland and Canada, and laboratory analysis he pioneered models for volcano-ice interactions and the genesis of Martian soil. His research on hydrothermal alteration led directly to a position at the Hanford nuclear site, studying the geochemical responses of groundwater and basalt to nuclear waste. Joining Lockheed Martin at JSC in 1991, Dr. Allen specialized in the study of space resources. He demonstrated, for the first time, the extraction of oxygen from lunar soils and the correlation of oxygen yield to major element composition. His research is now concentrated on astrobiology, specifically the microscopic physical biomarkers that may be our initial evidence of life in extraterrestrial samples.

For the past four years Dr. Allen worked with the Lunar Curator as science observer for sample processing and as a liaison to CAPTEM, the Curation and Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials. He has worked closely with the NASA and outside groups that regulate Curatorial operations. He currently represents JSC Curation on three national committees that are charged with making policy on future sample return missions. He has just published a complex study of sample sterilization and is researching issues of high-level biological safety at laboratories in the U.S. and France.