Mission Development for Exploration Laboratories (ExLabs LLC)
Member of the SETI Institute Science Advisory Board
Right after Keiko received her PhD in material science from Kobe University, Japan, she joined Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. Keiko has extensive experience with the curation and analysis of extraterrestrial materials, including: NASA’s Stardust mission samples from Comet Wild2, interplanetary dust particles, and primitive meteorites. She served as a science team member for NASA's Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission to Asteroid Bennu, and JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission to Asteroid Ryugu. Keiko’s research led to discovery of two new minerals, Brownleeite (MnSi) from a cometary dust and Wassonite (TiS) from Yamato 691 meteorite, both were nano-meter-scale, the smallest among ever approved as new minerals by the International Mineralogical Association.
Asteroid 7862 Keikonakamura is named in her honor for her pioneering work on microscopic organic globules in meteorites, furthering understanding of organic material in the Solar System. Keiko is a recipient of Antarctica Service Medal from the U.S. Congress, and the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Individual Medal from NASA.
Keiko is currently the Vice President of Mission Development for Exploration Laboratories (ExLabs LLC), an aerospace company developing the infrastructure to support asteroid science and the space resource utilization. Keiko is a science co-investigator for JAXA’s DESTINY+ (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for INterplanetary voYage with Phaethon fLyby and dUst Science) mission, to flyby the Geminids meteor shower parent body 3200 Phaethon.