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Elizabeth Tasker

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.

6 comments
Karl Urban replied to Elizabeth

@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.

Elizabeth Tasker replied to Karl

@pikarl If only someone had actually asked β€œwhat is this?” πŸ˜‚ But it was all printed on the customs form and I got no questions except to show the box πŸ“¦

DELETED replied to Elizabeth

@elizabethtasker what a story 😳 it’s crazy to me that such an immensely valuable package would go through normal commercial flight πŸ™ˆ I’ll think about tit when I go to see it in a few months!

Elizabeth Tasker replied to DELETED

@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.

DELETED replied to Elizabeth

@elizabethtasker Of course, I just thought it would be done by a special private flight. So many things can go wrong with commercial flights πŸ˜…

Elizabeth Tasker replied to DELETED

@at That would be very cool, but I don't think anyone would be able to afford to exhibit the grains πŸ˜…

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