An Astromaterial Curation Facility at MNHN-Paris, the National Center for
Extraterrestrial Material
J. Duprat1, M. Roskosz1, B. Doisneau1, S. Pont1, M. Verdier-Paoletti1, S. Bernard1, M. Gounelle1, J. Aléon1, P.
Sans-Jofre1, G. Avice2, F. Moynier2, R. Brunetto3, F. Poulet3, C. Engrand4, L. Delauche4, E. Dartois5
1
IMPMC, CNRS-MNHN-Sorbonne Université, UMR 7590, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France ; 2Université
Paris Cité, Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP), CNRS, 75005 Paris, France ; 3IAS, Université ParisSaclay, CNRS, UMR 8617, Orsay, France ; 4IJCLab, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, Orsay, France ;5ISMO, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Orsay, France
The study of extraterrestrial samples requires developments in curation facilities to preserve, and allocate pristine
samples to international scientific teams. During the last decades, the return to Earth of samples from the StardustNASA mission [1], Hayabusa1 and Hayabusa2 JAXA missions (e.g. [2, 3]), allowed the first analysis of samples
from an identified comet (81P/Wild2) and from two asteroids (Itokawa and Ryugu). Within the coming years,samples from asteroid Bennu will return to Earth thanks to the OSIRIS-REx NASA-led mission [4] and, on alonger term, samples from the Martian moon Phobos will be returned by the MMX JAXA-led mission [5]. After
2030, material currently sampled at the Martian surface is expected to be returned to Earth by the NASA/ESA
Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign [6]. Major curation facilities already exist at both NASA and JAXA [7-9]to receive, curate and handle samples directly returned from space missions. Advanced curation studies are ongoing [9, 10] while others facilities are currently into construction [11]. Beside space missions, extraterrestrial
materials (meteorites and cosmic dust) have been collected for centuries in many environments, including hot andcold deserts, deep sea sediments, sediments, polar ice caps, and stratospheric collections [12-14]. As recentlyillustrated by the striking similarity between Ryugu samples and the CI1 meteorites [15, 16], the comparison
between returned samples (i.e. with known parent body) and meteorites or micrometeorites from terrestrial
collections is an essential step in our understanding of these complex objects.
Together with the French spatial and scientific research agencies (CNES and CNRS), the Institut de physique duglobe de Paris (IPGP) and Sorbonne University, the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) launched aproject to build a national curation facility, the CENAME (National Center for Extraterrestrial Materials) locatedat MNHN in the center of Paris. The CENAME will include instruments and advanced storage facilities developedby several French laboratories, including IAS and IJCLab at University Paris-Saclay. The CENAME will be
designed to ensure long term curation of different major collections of extra-terrestrial samples including: thenational meteorite collection from MNHN, large micrometeorites collections from Greenland and Antarctica,
terrestrial analogues and samples from past and future space missions. The MNHN hosts an historical meteorite
collection with more than 1500 different meteorites, including 521 falls, and a rich panel of Martian samples(Shergottites, Chassignites, Nakhlites) [17]. It contains the largest sample of the Orgueil CI-chondrite, a reference
for cosmochemistry studies. The MNHN meteorite collection is actively used for cosmochemistry research
projects and is constantly growing with new additions every year. Thanks to the pioneering work of M. Maurettein the 80s, large numbers of micrometeorites (interplanetary dust reaching Earth surface) with diameters ranging
from a few tens up to a few hundred µm have been recovered from both Greenland and Antarctica [18, 19]. Since
2000, this program was pursued, in the central regions of Antarctica, where collections have been performed withthe support of the French polar institute (IPEV) [20, 21]. The Concordia micrometeorites collection contains
thousands of particles. A part of this collection is now fully characterized and contains micrometeorites withminimal terrestrial weathering, including particles of cometary origin that are exceptionally rich in organic matter(Ultra-Carbonaceous micrometeorites [22, 23]). The Concordia Collection is currently stored in a dedicatedcleanroom at IJCLab in Orsay and will be transferred to the CENAME when the facility will be completed. TheCENAME will also host a suite of terrestrial natural and synthetic analogues that are essential for analysis ofcomplex extraterrestrial matter, calibration and interpretation of remote sensing analyses (e.g. on Mars). The
CENAME will benefit from the MNHN Geological collection of rocks and minerals located in the same building.
It contains about a billion scientific samples accumulated over 2 centuries of worldwide scientific exploration. Thecollection has been recently enriched with samples recording early Earth surface environments and the earliest
traces of life on Earth (more than 1200 specimens spanning 3.5 billion years of Earth History). Beside these naturalsamples, several laboratories involved in the CENAME project have developed dedicated experimental protocols
to synthetize analogues of asteroidal and cometary organic matter.
Beyond these historical and on-going collections, the objective of the CENAME will be to allow sample handling,
pre-characterization and long-term preservation for the next generations of samples for current and future space
missions. As a result of on-going agreements between JAXA and the French space agency CNES, a fraction ofPhobos (MMX) samples are expected to be transferred to the CENAME at MNHN after the period of initialdescription at JAXA-ISAS sample receiving laboratory and after the first scientific analysis by the MMX Science
Sub-Teams (i.e. after 2030). The design of the CENAME will be modular to allow flexible configuration ofdifferent environments for the curation of pristine samples from other space missions. The CENAME will consist
in a clean-room infrastructure of about 180 m2, divided in separated modules with ISO7 to ISO5 [24] environments,
together with a laboratory for sample preparations and experiments that do not require a cleanroom environment.
The cleanroom area will contain secured cabinets and glove boxes under controlled atmospheres (dry and purified
N2, Ar, vacuum, …). In the long-term perspective of MSR, an ambitious program was recently launched, under
the supervision of CNES, to study an apparatus for small sample (solid and gas) handling in clean and biocontained (BSL4-like) environment. The CENAME will include a dedicated space to allow rehearsal on such typeof apparatus (before their operation in BSL4-like laboratories).
Instrumentation in the CENAME will focus on acquisition of the basic properties on samples with sizes goingfrom µm to cm scales. It will include optical 2D and 3D microscopy and imaging, weighting, magnetic
susceptibilities, scanning electron microscopy, Raman and infrared (IR) microspectroscopy with a dedicated suiteof instruments, to achieve initial characterization and cataloging of samples before allocations. The magnetic
environment of the samples and the magnetic properties of the handling tools will be monitored to ensurepreservation of the genuine magnetic properties of the samples. A strict control of terrestrial contamination within
CENAME cleanrooms will be achieved by real-time monitoring of inorganic, organic and biologicalcontamination. The CENAME will develop research programs to improve existing curation techniques and newtechnological solutions for the mid to long-term curation of volatile elements (e.g., H2O, N, noble gases) containedin samples collected by future space missions (e.g. ice and gas from cometary objects or planetary atmospheres).
Specific tasks will include the characterization of materials outgassing properties. A specific setup will be
developed at IAS in order to allow a multi-scale (from mm down to µm) IR reflectance micro-imaging
characterization on the CENAME samples. The analysis will be fully non-destructive and non-invasive, and it will
be performed within a dedicated bench in a controlled atmosphere (e.g., N2), with no need for specific sample
preparation. In the case of returned samples, the setup will allow measurements complementary to the IR
characterization performed at other curation facilities hosting the main sample collection (e.g., JAXA [25]).
Acknowledgement: The CENAME is a joint project supported by MNHN, IPGP, Sorbonne University, UniversityParis Cité, CNES and CNRS. The curation-related instruments and apparatus currently under development benefit
from funding by Région Ile de France (DIM-ACAV+ contract C3E), CNES, CNRS, MNHN and ANR contract(COMETOR 18-CE31-0011). The collection of micrometeorites benefited from the pluri-annual funding by IPEVand PNRA (Program #1020)
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