Triple F—a comet nucleus sample return mission (original) (raw)
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The proposed Caroline ESA M3 mission to a Main Belt Comet
Advances in Space Research
We describe Caroline, a mission proposal submitted to the European Space Agency in 2010 in response to the Cosmic Visions M3 call for medium-sized missions. Caroline would have travelled to a Main Belt Comet (MBC), characterizing the object during a flyby, and capturing dust from its tenuous coma for return to Earth. MBCs are suspected to be transition objects straddling the traditional boundary between volatile-poor rocky asteroids and volatile-rich comets. The weak cometary activity exhibited by these objects indicates the presence of water ice, and may represent the primary type of object that delivered water to the early Earth. The Caroline mission would have employed aerogel as a medium for the capture of dust grains, as successfully used by the NASA Stardust mission to Comet 81P/ Wild 2. We describe the proposed mission design, primary elements of the spacecraft, and provide an overview of the science instruments and their measurement goals. Caroline was ultimately not selected by the European Space Agency during the M3 call; we briefly reflect on the pros and cons of the mission as proposed, and how current and future mission MBC mission proposals such as Castalia could best be approached.
Dust in cometary comae: Present understanding of the structure and composition of dust particles
Planetary and Space Science, 2008
In situ probing of a very few cometary comae has shown that dust particles present a low albedo and a low density, and that they consist of both rocky material and refractory organics. Remote observations of solar light scattered by cometary dust provide information on the properties of dust particles in the coma of a larger set of comets. The observations of the linear polarization in the coma indicate that the dust particles are irregular, with a size greater (on the average) than about 1 mm. Besides, they suggest, through numerical and experimental simulations, that both compact grains and fluffy aggregates (with a power law of the size distribution in the À2.6 to À3 range), and both rather transparent silicates and absorbing organics are present in the coma. Recent analysis of the cometary dust samples collected by the Stardust mission provide a unique ground truth and confirm, for comet 81P/Wild 2, the results from remote sensing observations. Future space missions to comets should, in the next decade, lead to a more precise characterization of the structure and composition of cometary dust particles. r
Comets harbor the most primitive Solar System material, were the building blocks for the cores of the Giant Planets, transport water and organics (the seeds of life) throughout our planetary system, and possibly played a key role in terrestrial planet habitability. The study of comets is therefore critical to understanding the formation and evolution of the Solar System and will have important implications for understanding habitability in extrasolar planetary systems. We present the current status of cometary science, specify the major scientific questions resolvable by future NASA comet missions, and define a prioritized strategy for NASA's exploration of comets from 2011-2020.
Laboratory Studies Towards Understanding Comets
This review presents some of the recent advancements in our understanding of comets facilitated by laboratory studies, need for new laboratory simulations, and predictions for future explorations. With the spacecraft Rosetta at the comet 67P/Churyumov– Gerasimenko, a large volume of science data is expected to follow early results that have been published recently. The most surprising of them being hard ice shell that bounced the lander Philae a couple of times before settling on the comet. Long evaded molecular nitrogen has now been detected in the comet 67P/CG. The observed density of 470 kg m −3 is in line with other comet observations, whereas the nature and composition of hydrocarbons detected on the surface are still a puzzle. Observation of D/H ratio that deviates significantly from Earth's water D/H ratio brings back to the table the long-standing question whether or not water on Earth was delivered by comet impacts. Our review summarizes some of the critical laboratory work that helps improve our understanding of cometary interior (whether amorphous or crystalline or containing clathrates), cometary surface (rich of complex organ-ics), cometary coma and tail (D/H ratio, negative ions, and photoluminescence). Outstanding questions are also discussed.
Rapporteur Paper on the Composition of Comets
Space Science Reviews, 2008
The ISSI workshop on "Origin and evolution of comet nuclei" had the goal to put together recent scientific findings concerning the "life" of a comet from the formation of the material in a dark molecular cloud to the accretion in the early solar system, from cometesimals to comet nuclei which were shaped and altered by cosmic rays, by radioisotopic heating, to their sublimation in the inner solar system. Astronomers, space researchers, modelers and laboratory experimentalists tried to draw the coherent picture. However, it became clear that there are still a lot of open questions, findings which seem to contradict each other, missing laboratory data, and experimental biases not taken into account. The Rosetta mission will make a big step forward in cometary science, but it will almost certainly not be able to resolve all questions. The main outcome of this workshop was the fact that comets are much more diverse than commonly thought and they are not only different from comet to comet but may consist of morphologically and chemically inhomogeneous cometesimals which may even have different places of origin.
The Champollion cometary molecular analysis experiment
Advances in Space Research, 1999
The Chemical Analysis of Released Gas Experiment (CHARGE), is one of several investigations selected for the Champollion New Millennium DS4 Mission. CHARGE is presently being designed to carry out a detailed molecular and isotopic analysis of material collected from the surface and several centimeters below the surface of comet Tempel 1. The highest priority scientific issues addressed by this investigation include: the chemical conditions present in the region of cometary formation; the chemical changes during cometary formation and over the lifetime of the comet; the relationship of comets to other primitive and more evolved bodies in the solar system and to the parent interstellar cloud; the contribution of cometary material to the atmospheres and oceans of planets; and the nature of the mixture of ices and dust grains which give rise to the coma and extended sources of gas as a comet approaches perihelion. CHARGE will be designed to thermally process samples of solid phase material from near the ambient temperature to approximately 900 K. Gases evolved from the frozen ices will be continuously analyzed as a function of sample temperature by a quadrupole mass spectrometer with a mass range of 2 to 300 amu. A broad range of major and trace species, both organic and inorganic, from the gases evolved from the solid samples will undergo both chemical and cold trapping for subsequent analysis by gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) analysis. CHARGE technology heritage includes the Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer (Niemann et al., 1996) that successfully 349 350 D. Mahaffy et al. measured the composition of Jupiter's atmosphere in December of 1995. The landed portion of the mission will enable analysis of subsurface materials and allow identification of organic species present at sub-parts per million mole-fraction in the nucleus. Prior to the landed operations, CHARGE will carry out measurements from orbit for a period of several weeks.
MIDAS – The Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System for the Rosetta Mission
Space Science Reviews, 2007
The International Rosetta Mission is set for a rendezvous with Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. On its 10 year journey to the comet, the spacecraft will also perform a fly-by of the two asteroids Stein and Lutetia in 2008 and 2010, respectively. The mission goal is to study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar System. Measurements will be performed that shed light into the development of cometary activity and the processes in the surface layer of the nucleus and the inner coma. The Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System (MIDAS) instrument is an essential element of Rosetta's scientific payload. It will provide 3D images and statistical parameters of pristine cometary particles in the nm-μm range from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. According to cometary dust models and experience gained from the Giotto and Vega missions to 1P/Halley, there appears to be an abundance of particles in this size range, which also covers the building blocks of pristine interplanetary dust particles. The dust collector of MIDAS will point at the comet and collect particles drifting outwards from the nucleus surface. MIDAS is based on an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), a type of scanning microprobe able to image small structures in 3D. AFM images provide morphological and statistical information on the dust population, including texture, shape, size and flux. Although the AFM uses proven laboratory technology, MIDAS is its first such application in space. This paper describes the scientific objectives and background, the technical implementation and the capabilities of MIDAS as they stand after the commissioning of the flight instrument, and the implications for cometary measurements.