Questions tagged [sample-return]
Mission to some extraterrestrial object which results in return of materials to Earth for further examination.
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What precautions are planned to prevent samples returned from Mars crashing and releasing organisms into Earth's environment?
Bias disclaimer: I think that returning samples from Mars to Earth at a point in time where we also suspect there is a chance that there is microbial life on Mars is ill-advised and arrogant. We are ...
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Why NASA's sudden renewed (apparently) interest in Wax hybrid engines? Which property is so attractive now?
update:
This answer links to Larry Russell Kellogg which links to NASA Tests Environmentally Friendly Rocket Fuel where images of Test firing of new Paraffin-Based Fuel at NASA Ames Research Center 1/...
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Why should the Mars 2020 rover drop drilled cores along its route to be picked up later?
The Mars 2020 rover will drill up real cores decimeter or so deep, in order for them to be returned to Earth by a follow up mission. I hear NASA people now seriously working on having that rover drop ...
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Explanation of single-burn trajectories from Lunar surface to Earth surface
I learned of the fine book Soviet Robots in the Solar System from this excellent answer. One chapter in it describes how the Soviets had extreme mass limitations on their lunar sample return vehicle ...
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If there is actual ice on the moon, why hasn't it sublimated?
The Ars Technica article NASA seeks industry help with lunar landings, potentially sample return discusses the potential value of ice on the moon as a source for fuel in future space missions.
Ice ...
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Perseverance individual sample collection post-mission; what stops them from blowing away or getting covered and hidden by dust?
I have been seeing videos that the plan after Perseverance is done collecting samples to distribute them in 'strategic' locations around Mars for another rover to drive around and pick up later. Why ...
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Thrown-together $200 million mission to asteroid 2020 SO; check out or nudge to longer-lasting mini-moon orbit
This tweet says in part:
Earth's potential new minimoon, 2020 SO may be the Surveyor 2 Centaur rocket body, launched in September 1966. Integrating backwards shows 2020 SO2 to also be orbiting Earth ...
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What forms of water ice have been observed and verified in the solar system?
The cool plot in this answer (from here) got me thinking about the more than sixteen distinct forms of ice, and how many of them have been actually seen to occur naturally in the solar system.
There ...
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Actual mass of Hayabusa samples in 2010?
Whatever I read I find Hayavusa brought some microscopic particles.
But what was the mass of the sample?
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Why does the Perseverance Rover do sample caching?
As glad as I am that Perseverance's landing was successful, I'm a bit confused as to why there appears to be so little science equipment aboard the rover (by volume) and why the mission seems to be ...
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How much total lunar mass remains viable for analysis here on Earth?
I know that samples of lunar regolith were taken on many missions to and from the moon, but I also know that these rocks aren't common and are being used for analysis purposes. According to this NASA ...
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How will Bennu's volatile compounds stay cool and unmodified by the heat of re-entry (OSIRIS-REx)?
Watching the video in this NYTimes article NASA Aims at an Asteroid Holding Clues to the Solar System’s Roots I realized for the first time how the samples actually make it back to Earth.
The ...
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Does NASA still plan for the Mars Ascent Vehicle to burn wax from the surface to orbit?
The NASA news item From Pedicures to the Peregrine Rocket, Paraffin Wax Proves Its Worth says:
The paraffin-based fuel also works under challenging environmental conditions, like the very low ...
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Could the SS520 be used to return a payload from Mars to Earth?
The Japanese SS520-5 nanosat launcher has a payload of 5kg or so to LEO on an all solid fuel rocket with a total mass of about 2.6 tons. To reach LEO its delta-V totalled over all three stages must be ...
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Are there (detailed) images or diagrams of the rotating drill carousel and the small robotic arm which are housed in the belly of Perseverance?
The sample handling page at the Mars 2020 mission site shows us the rover with at its front a circle that probably contains the rotating drill carousel ?
However it states that the belly of the rover ...
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Will surface samples from Mars orbit the planet in a spherical capsule until captured?
The abstract of the interesting 2001 NASA JPL paper Covering a Sphere with Retroreflectors says:
Abstract- One of the future missions for Mars involves returning a soil sample from the Martian ...
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How did the Russians get moon rocks?
I've read somewhere that the Russians have moon rocks. How did they get them?
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What is the deepest we have penetrated a terrestrial body other than Earth?
Curiosity drills 6.4 cm (2.5 inch) holes on Mars. Comet harpoons have been proposed for future space probes. There are a number of ways in which we can penetrate the surface of terrestrial bodies, but ...
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What skipped test on Genesis would have detected the backwards-inserted accelerometer which didn't deploy the parachute?
What precautions are planned to prevent samples returned from Mars crashing and releasing organisms on Earth? and this answer to Why would bringing samples from Mars back to Earth be a “civilization-...
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How large a body could a probe with ion engines land on and launch from?
Researching small asteroids up close by use of robotic probes seems like an appealing near-future mission. One option is a sample return mission that goes to one large body, another is a mission where ...
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Which are the main challenges for sample return mission from an asteroid and a comet?
The first sample return mission from a comet has been achieved by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, and the first sample return mission from an asteroid has been achieved by JAXA's Hayabusa spacecraft. What ...
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How did the Luna spacecraft collect samples of the moon and containerize them for return to Earth?
The Wikipedia page Sample-return mission and this answer list Luna 16, 20 and 24 missions as each bringing back of the order of 100 grams of lunar material to Earth, but their Wikipedia pages don't ...
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Could the uncertain mass of the OSIRIS-REx sample affect the trajectory of the return capsule?
It appears that so much material was collected by OSIRIS-REx from the asteroid Bennu, that the cover of the collection head won't close, and some of the sample is floating away.
In reviewing these ...
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Minimum delta V required to return a piece of metallic asteroid 16 Psyche to Earth?
Suppose somebody sent a rover to Psyche 16 and found massive concentrated deposits of platinum-group metals near the surface, and turned it into a 10 ton sphere of platinum/iridium/osmium/gold alloy ...
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Why would bringing samples from Mars back to Earth be a "civilization-level changing capability"?
The Space News article NASA continues Mars sample return mission studies
Among those planned missions is Mars sample return, a multi-mission architecture that involves collecting samples of Martian ...
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Are the Perseverance core samples extracted from the drill bit before being stored?
Among other tasks, the Perseverance rover will drill core samples of rocks, which are then stored in sample tubes for their return to Earth.
Are the core samples removed from the drill bit before ...
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Delta-v penalty for stopping in a distant Earth orbit versus using atmospheric reentry for braking and returning to Earth from Mars?
Comments below this answer to What precautions are planned to prevent an accident or anomaly from releasing Martians into Earth's environment? say:
Seems to me like a high earth orbit lab might be a ...
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