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تسجيل مستخدم جديدVolatile Sample Return in the Solar System
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We advocate for the realization of volatile sample return from various destinations including: small bodies, the Moon, Mars, ocean worlds/satellites, and plumes. As part of recent mission studies (e.g., Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return (CAESAR) and Mars Sample Return), new concepts, technologies, and protocols have been considered for specific environments and cost. Here we provide a plan for volatile sample collection and identify the associated challenges with the environment, transit/storage, Earth re-entry, and curation. Laboratory and theoretical simulations are proposed to verify sample integrity during each mission phase. Sample collection mechanisms are evaluated for a given environment with consideration for alteration. Transport and curation are essential for sample return to maximize the science investment and ensure pristine samples for analysis upon return and after years of preservation. All aspects of a volatile sample return mission are driven by the science motivation: isotope fractionation, noble gases, organics and prebiotic species; plus planetary protection considerations for collection and for the sample. The science value of sample return missions has been clearly demonstrated by previous sample return programs and missions. Sample return of volatile material is key to understanding (exo)planet formation, evolution, and habitability. Returning planetary volatiles poses unique and potentially severe technical challenges. These include preventing changes to samples between (and including) collection and analyses, and meeting planetary protection requirements.
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Comets likely formed in the outer regions of the protosolar nebula where they incorporated and preserved primitive presolar materials, volatiles resident in the outer disk, and more refractory materials from throughout the disk. The return of a sampl
e of volatiles (i.e., ices and entrained gases), along with other components of a cometary nucleus, will yield numerous major scientific opportunities. We are unaccustomed to thinking of ices through a mineralogical/petrological lens, but at cryogenic temperatures, ices can be regarded as mineral components of rocky material like any other. This is truly Terra Incognita, as a sample from a natural cryogenic (10s of K) environment is unprecedented in any setting; currently, we can only make educated guesses about the nature of these materials on a microscopic scale. Such samples will provide an unparalleled look at the primordial gases and ices present in the early solar nebula, enabling insights into the gas phase and gas-grain chemistry of the nebula. Understanding the nature of the ices in their microscopic, petrographic relationship to the refractory components of the cometary sample will allow for the study of those relationships and interactions and a study of evolutionary processes on small icy bodies. The previous 2013-2022 Planetary Decadal Survey included a study of a Flagship-class cryogenic comet nucleus sample return mission, given the scientific importance of such a mission. However, the mission was not recommended for flight in the last Decadal Survey, in part because of the immaturity of critical technologies. Now, a decade later, the scientific importance of the mission remains and relevant technological advances have been made in both cryo instrumentation for flight and laboratory applications. Such a mission should be undertaken in the next decade.
The goal of Project GAUSS is to return samples from the dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is the most accessible ocean world candidate and the largest reservoir of water in the inner solar system. It shows active cryovolcanism and hydrothermal activities in
recent history that resulted in minerals not found in any other planets to date except for Earths upper crust. The possible occurrence of recent subsurface ocean on Ceres and the complex geochemistry suggest possible past habitability and even the potential for ongoing habitability. Aiming to answer a broad spectrum of questions about the origin and evolution of Ceres and its potential habitability, GAUSS will return samples from this possible ocean world for the first time. The project will address the following top-level scientific questions: 1) What is the origin of Ceres and the origin and transfer of water and other volatiles in the inner solar system? 2) What are the physical properties and internal structure of Ceres? What do they tell us about the evolutionary and aqueous alteration history of icy dwarf planets? 3) What are the astrobiological implications of Ceres? Was it habitable in the past and is it still today? 4) What are the mineralogical connections between Ceres and our current collections of primitive meteorites? GAUSS will first perform a high-resolution global remote sensing investigation, characterizing the geophysical and geochemical properties of Ceres. Candidate sampling sites will then be identified, and observation campaigns will be run for an in-depth assessment of the candidate sites. Once the sampling site is selected, a lander will be deployed on the surface to collect samples and return them to Earth in cryogenic conditions that preserves the volatile and organic composition as well as the original physical status as much as possible.
Comets hold answers to mysteries of the Solar System by recording presolar history, the initial states of planet formation and prebiotic organics and volatiles to the early Earth. Analysis of returned samples from a comet nucleus will provide unparal
leled knowledge about the Solar System starting materials and how they came together to form planets and give rise to life: 1. How did comets form? 2. Is comet material primordial, or has it undergone a complex alteration history? 3. Does aqueous alteration occur in comets? 4. What is the composition of cometary organics? 5. Did comets supply a substantial fraction of Earths volatiles? 6. Did cometary organics contribute to the homochirality in life on Earth? 7. How do complex organic molecules form and evolve in interstellar, nebular, and planetary environments? 8. What can comets tell us about the mixing of materials in the protosolar nebula?
Small bodies are time-capsules of different eras of solar system history from the most primitive materials within the solar system to evolved pieces of larger bodies. A small body sample return program is an essential component of small body explorat
ion, and such a program should include opportunities for both missions and laboratory analysis.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched successfully on 18th of April, 2018, will observe nearly the full sky and will provide time-series imaging data in ~27-day-long campaigns. TESS is equipped with 4 cameras; each has a field-of
-view of 24x24 degrees. During the first two years of the primary mission, one of these cameras, Camera #1, is going to observe fields centered at an ecliptic latitude of 18 degrees. While the ecliptic plane itself is not covered during the primary mission, the characteristic scale height of the main asteroid belt and Kuiper belt implies that a significant amount of small solar system bodies will cross the field-of-view of this camera. Based on the comparison of the expected amount of information of TESS and Kepler/K2, we can compute the cumulative etendues of the two optical setups. This comparison results in roughly comparable optical etendues, however the net etendue is significantly larger in the case of TESS since all of the imaging data provided by the 30-minute cadence frames are downlinked rather than the pre-selected stamps of Kepler/K2. In addition, many principles of the data acquisition and optical setup are clearly different, including the level of confusing background sources, full-frame integration and cadence, the field-of-view centroid with respect to the apparent position of the Sun, as well as the differences in the duration of the campaigns. As one would expect, TESS will yield time-series photometry and hence rotational properties for only brighter objects, but in terms of spatial and phase space coverage, this sample will be more homogeneous and more complete. Here we review the main analogues and differences between the Kepler/K2 mission and the TESS mission, focusing on scientific implications and possible yields related to our Solar System.
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