About Laboratories
The 20 plus research laboratories in Astromaterials Research Office perform physical science research in support of the Astromaterials Research & Exploration Sciences (ARES / KA) Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. This research covers a wide spectrum of interest (e.g., primitive materials, planetary formation, Mars, mission science support, and astrobiology), and involves carrying out peer-reviewed research in astromaterials (e.g., meteorites, cosmic and interplanetary dust, comet, solar wind, lunar rocks, asteroids, Mars). Astromaterials research personnel are commonly involved in flight & sample return missions (e.g., LDEF, Stardust, Mars Phoenix & Rovers, ODC, Genesis, Mars Science Lab, Hayabusa, etc.) as scientist (Co-I or PI) gathering, processing, and interpreting results and/or sample analyses. The fundamental goals of the research carried out in these facilities is to better understand the origin and evolution of our solar system, in particular Earth, Mars, & Moon, and the nature and distribution of life in our solar system and possibly beyond.