Project Highlight
NASA JSC Advanced Sample and Asteroid Curation Facility
CUSTOMER: NASA
Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center serves as the world’s premier repository for extraterrestrial samples. As part of the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division, their mission is vital: the preservation and documentation of materials from the Moon, comets, solar wind, and Mars. These samples are the “time capsules” of our universe, and their protection is essential for the global scientific community.
To support the landmark OSIRIS-REx mission—NASA’s first mission to return a sample from a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid—NASA required a state-of-the-art laboratory specifically designed to house and study the primitive materials of asteroid 101955 Bennu.
The Mission: A New Home for Ancient History: Asteroid Bennu is a window into the past, rich in organic matter and original material from the solar nebula that formed over 4.5 billion years ago. To ensure these samples remained pristine upon their return to Earth on September 24, 2023, ADVON was selected to transform portions of the first and second floors of Building 31 into a world-class Advanced Sample and Asteroid Curation Facility.
Precision Renovation & Clean Room Engineering: ADVON executed a complex architectural and mechanical conversion, replacing legacy office spaces and equipment labs with high-performance environments:
- ISO-Class Clean Rooms: Construction of ultra-clean laboratory environments designed to prevent terrestrial contamination, ensuring the chemical integrity of the 60-gram (and greater) asteroid sample.
- Specialized Circulation & Logic: Designed and built-out refined circulation paths and specialized study areas to facilitate the delicate handling of astromaterials.
- Modernized Support Infrastructure: Integrated new administrative offices and a mission-focused conference suite to support the ARES scientific team.
Protecting the Scientific Frontier: By delivering these specialized clean room facilities, ADVON provided the secure environment necessary for scientists to unlock the secrets of our solar system’s formation. The facility now stands as a cornerstone of NASA’s sample-return capabilities, housing the primitive building blocks of life that OSIRIS-REx traveled millions of miles to retrieve.
