All Questions
Tagged with sample-return mission-design
7
questions
3
votes
1
answer
149
views
Why did Luna 16 go to the Moon at night? (Extreme cold vs robotic sampling & launch back to Earth)
While landing on the Sun at night has obvious advantages1 I'm curious why Luna 16 landed on the Moon at night. It was a complex mission involving robotic sample retrieval and a sample return launch ...
- 149k
11
votes
1
answer
486
views
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 ...
- 827
2
votes
1
answer
105
views
What will happen to Chang’e 5 orbiter?
What will happen to the Chang’e 5 orbiter which will return the collected samples to earth? Will it burn up in the atmosphere like Hayabusa, or is an extented mission planned?
- 1,178
8
votes
1
answer
433
views
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 ...
- 149k
2
votes
0
answers
49
views
Has a suborbital rendezvous ever been mentioned in a serious mission proposal/study? [duplicate]
This is an odd one that's been in the back of my head for a while. Consider the LOR architecture of the Apollo missions. To return to earth from the lunar surface, it is most mass-efficient to have ...
- 10.9k
14
votes
1
answer
875
views
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 ...
- 21.4k
6
votes
0
answers
180
views
How could a minimal sample return only from the plumes of an ice moon, Ceres or Io be designed?
Would it be feasible and would it make sense to minimalistically design a sample-return-only mission (or class of missions) along these lines:
Light weight plume collecting aerogel (like the Stardust ...
- 27k