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And this, my good people, is what I was really doing in France last week (apart from counting aeroplanes at the Paris Air Show): Smuggling... uh, *couriering* grains from asteroid Ryugu to Cité de l'espace in France. They will be on public display from this autumn! Do I look IMMENSELY HAPPY to be handing over that case in Toulouse? Let's talk about the behind the scenes adventure... 📦 🏃♀️ More 📷: 16 comments
Reaching the front of the line, I flexed my fingers and wondered if I should start with my 40 minute or 60 minute talk on the Hayabusa2 mission. Of course, the customs officials would doubtless need the big picture, so we should follow this up with the five lecture course I was preparing on 'water in the Universe'. STAMP. After a brief check of the box I was carrying, and a shocking lack of request for multi-hour talks, my customs forms were inked and I was shoo'd out. Before leaving the astromaterials curation building, I had been warned to keep the sample container vertical at all times. Why? (I was promptly to regret asking) Because the grain might fragment. YOU WHAT NOW? We travel 6 years through space, pull off two near-autonomous landings to return the world's first sample from a C-type asteroid… …and I might dust it on the way to France. It would be worse than when I got our mission twitter account banned days before the Earth return (yes, really) To avoid dusting the asteroid grain into oblivion, I carefully open the protective carry case and rotated the sample container 90 degrees before very very gently placing it flat inside one of the bins for the x-ray scanner. The airport assistant promptly picked up the bin and plopped it with a bump on the conveyer belt 😑 I wondered if I could forego the people scanner and go through as baggage, curled in one of the bins, with the asteroid grains cradled to my belly. Worried that no sane person would believe my story about carrying a rock from outer space, I had done something I had never done before in all my six years at the space agency. I was wearing my official JAXA pin badge. This small rectangular pin is given only to employees, and I was told I would have to return it when I left the agency or retired. Since it looked imminently losable, I'd hidden it in my desk. But now (after some searching), it was pinned to the lapel of my Hayabusa2 jacket. I did debate "forgetting" to remove my jacket as I walked through the airport scanner. "Oh, did I forget to remove some metal? Ah... that would be my OFFICIAL JAXA BADGE! BECAUSE I'M REALLY FROM A SPACE AGENCY, AND WHEN YOU PULL MY WEIRD LUGGAGE FOR INSPECTION, IT REALLY IS AN ACTUAL ASTEROID." I resisted. Narrowly. And... nothing. No beep. The protective case slid through the x-ray scanner without further comment, and the grains were perfectly fine. My kindle had given more trouble the last time I travelled. It's a blisteringly long flight to Paris from Tokyo, due to the need to avoid Russia airspace. Yes, I did take the asteroid to the bathroom with me. Yes, my seat neighbour thought I was insane. But can you imagine losing it?! Changing flights in Paris for Toulouse, the security scanner did beep. My asteroid was about to be swabbed. I prepared my laptop for a marathon Hayabusa2 mission extravaganza. The airport attendant briefly ran a swab over the outside of the protective case, and along the inside padding. She didn't disturb the asteroid container, or even ask anything about it. With a sigh, I slid my laptop back into my bag. Then, I put the protective case into my backpack and merged with the crowds. @elizabethtasker I like this kind of stories so much. When you consider the effort of bringing things to space and back to the Earth - airport security seems just rediculous. One the other hand I'd loved to stand behind you in the queue, listened to your 4h talk on Ryugu, even though I'd missed my flight over it. @pikarl If only someone had actually asked “what is this?” 😂 But it was all printed on the customs form and I got no questions except to show the box 📦 @elizabethtasker what a story 😳 it’s crazy to me that such an immensely valuable package would go through normal commercial flight 🙈 I’ll think about tit when I go to see it in a few months! @at The value (or rather importance, as it's not really got commercial value) is why it must be hand carried on a flight (even though it's a regular flight), and we couldn't just send it recorded mail. @elizabethtasker Of course, I just thought it would be done by a special private flight. So many things can go wrong with commercial flights 😅 @at That would be very cool, but I don't think anyone would be able to afford to exhibit the grains 😅 |
Gregory's Server
Despite the fact JAXA has delivered grains for scientific study all over the world, this particular permutation had not been attempted before. These Ryugu grains were for outreach, not science, so they could pass through the x-ray scanner without issue.
As you can imagine, this vastly simplifies the paperwork needed to clear airport security but... to what?
The scientific container looked very official, potentially resembling soil (bad), cultural heritage (bad), horrifyingly expensive (bad)...