The Marco Polo space mission: sample return from a primitive Near-Earth Object under assessment study in the Cosmic Vision Program of the European Space Agency

Details The Marco Polo space mission: sample return from a primitive Near-Earth Object under assessment study in the Cosmic Vision Program of the European Space Agency The Marco Polo space mission: sample return from a primitive Near-Earth Object under assessment study in the Cosmic Vision Program of the European Space Agency

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008epsc.conf..806m&link_type=abstract

European Planetary Science Congress 2008, Proceedings of the conference held 21-25 September, 2008 in Münster, Germany. Online a

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Marco Polo is a joint European-Japanese mission study to perform a sample return from a primitive Near-Earth Object (NEO). On October 2007, this mission project passed the first evaluation process in the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision Programme 2015-2025. The aim of Marco Polo is to reach a primitive NEO, to perform a multiple scale characterization of its physical properties, and to bring samples back to the Earth for detailed analysis in laboratory. The NEO population is composed by asteroids and comets that are thought to be the primitive leftover building blocks of the Solar System formation process. Due to their small sizes, their chemical composition is believed to have kept some memory of the original chemical composition of the solar nebula, contrary to larger planetary bodies who experienced major thermal processes in their interior. They may also carry some important information related to life formation as current exobiological scenarios invoke an exogeneous delivery of organic matter to the early Earth for the origin of terrestrial life. Finally, the hazard caused by these small bodies needs mitigation strategies which efficiency relies on our understanding of their physical properties. Marco Polo will give us the first opportunity for detailed laboratory study of the most primitive materials. This sample return space mission has therefore the potential to revolutionize our understanding of primitive materials, essential to undestand the conditions for planet formation and emergency of life. Current mission studies and expected results will be presented and discussed.

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