NASA Procedural Requirements

NPR 7100.5 Effective Date: August 16, 2023 Expiration Date: August 16, 2028

Subject: Curation of Astromaterials

Responsible Office: Science Mission Directorate

Appendix A: Definitions

Accessioning: Addition of materials to a curated scientific collection.

Astromaterials Allocation Review Board (AARB): The AARB is a standing review panel, convened by the Chief Scientist for Astromaterials Curation, and managed by the Astromaterials Curator, charged with evaluating proposals requesting allocation of all specimens contained in NASA astromaterials collections.

Astromaterials: Astromaterials encompass all natural materials from extraterrestrial environments, including samples collected in space, on other Solar System bodies, and on Earth. Such materials include, but are not limited to, rocks, dust, minerals, meteorites, regolith, ices, organic matter, gases, and atoms.

Astromaterials Collection: An astromaterials collection comprises astromaterials specimens together with their associated hardware and contamination knowledge samples.

Astromaterials Curation: All activities related to the preservation, conservation, cataloging/inventorying, allocation, accessioning or deaccessioning, and physical security of astromaterials and astromaterials collections and other management functions associated with these activities.

Collection Plan: A document associated with an individual astromaterials collection, outlining collection-specific policies and procedures for the use, allocation, conservation, storage, security, and preservation of specimens.

Curation Budget: A document developed by a mission or project to plan for the expected costs of development, maintenance, and operation of curation facilities, including their personnel, during the course of the mission or project.

Curation Facility: Any environment in which curation-related activities take place, including temporary or mobile facilities used to isolate astromaterials from the terrestrial environment.

Curation Plan: A document developed by a mission or project that includes a description of the materials to be placed in an astromaterials collection, the conditions needed for their storage, plans for their documentation, and other information related to the curation of the samples.

Curation Strategy: A document produced by a program to plan the overarching needs for astromaterials curation during a multi-mission sample-return campaign.

Deaccessioning: Removal of an astromaterials collection, or an individual specimen or subspecimen in such a collection, from NASA’s ownership and custody. This term does not apply to material consumed during the course of official loans of subspecimens for destructive scientific analysis.

Qualified Investigators: Members of the public who meet the requirements for access to the astromaterials collections through the existing review and approval process for the relevant curated materials.

Sample-Return Campaign: A series of spaceflight missions with an overall plan or which anticipates the return of astromaterials to Earth in one or more of the component missions. Component missions that deliver the samples to Earth are themselves sample-return missions.

Sample-Return Mission: Any spaceflight or suborbital mission which plans or anticipates the return of astromaterials to Earth during-the-course of that mission, even if the sample return is incidental to the major objectives of the mission.

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