The role of meteoritics in spaceflight missions, and vice versa: Meteoritical Society Presidential Address

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

1

Scientific paper

Research on extraterrestrial materials plays a critical role in formulating the science rationale and design for spacecraft missions and, conversely, spaceflight holds great promise for solving perplexing problems in meteoritics. The connections between meteoritics and sample-return missions are obvious: Meteorite research can define sampling strategies, the capabilities of sampling devices, acceptable levels of chemical contamination and physical alteration of samples, and the conditions under which samples are stored prior to and during recovery. For their part, sample-return missions can provide geologic context for meteorites, increased sampling diversity (including materials not sampled as meteorites, such as unconsolidated regolith, ices, and atmosphere), calibration for crater-counting chronology, and ground truth for remote sensing measurements of meteorite parent bodies. Meteoritics also relates to spacecraft flyby, rendezvous, and lander missions that do not necessarily return samples. Specific illustrations of this mutual relationship, based on a selection of recent or planned spacecraft missions include: Identifying source asteroid classes for ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites, and reconstructing their thermal and collisional histories (Galileo, NEAR, Clementine II, and Muses-C); determining the extent to which cometary dust and interstellar grains are found as interplanetary dust particles, and assessing volatile abundances, isotopic compositions, and molecular species in cometary nuclei (Stardust and Rosetta); understanding the compositions of ancient Martian crust and the mantle sources for SNC meteorites, as well as inventorying the planet's volatile reservoirs and interactions (Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor); assessing whether lunar meteorites provide a more representative chemical sampling of the highlands crust and of mare volcanism than do Apollo samples (Galileo, Clementine, and Lunar Prospector). Spaceflight is the first priority of the space agencies that fund most research on extraterrestrial materials, and the continued level of support for such research may be linked, in part, to its use in exploration by spacecraft.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The role of meteoritics in spaceflight missions, and vice versa: Meteoritical Society Presidential Address does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The role of meteoritics in spaceflight missions, and vice versa: Meteoritical Society Presidential Address, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The role of meteoritics in spaceflight missions, and vice versa: Meteoritical Society Presidential Address will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1137455

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.