Measuring the Shock Stage of Asteroid Regolith Grains by Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction

We have been analyzing Itokawa samples in order to definitively establish the degree of shock experienced by the regolith of asteroid Itokawa, and to devise a bridge between shock determinations by standard light optical petrography, crystal structures as determined by electron and X-ray diffraction. These techniques would then be available for samples returned from other asteroid regoliths.