Comments on the analysis of returned comet samples

It is first argued that, when comet sampled are returned, they should be distributed to individual laboratories for analysis in the way that lunar samples, meteorites, and interplanetary dust particles have been studied in the past. The intellectual ferment engendered by recent discoveries should ensure the viability of groups working in extraterrestrial material research into the indefinite future. Many of the recent discoveries have resulted from application of increasingly sophisticated methods of microanalysis. #the interplay between technological developments and scientific work is underscored and it is argued that increased technical support for extraterrestrial material research should lead to instrumental developments that could have widespread practical applications.A brief review of certain potentially relevant technical developments in other fields is given and it is suggested that microanalytic measurements of extraterrestrial samples at the atom-counting limit appear promising for the future. The special problems raised by the necessity for cryogenic examination of comet samples are briefly discussed and it is concluded that the lack of expertise in this area is a current weakness in the ability of the extraterrestrial material community to handle comet samples. Computer tomography scan images of a dirty snowball are presented to illustrate the importance of developing new methods for comet sample analysis.