Questions tagged [sample-return]
Mission to some extraterrestrial object which results in return of materials to Earth for further examination.
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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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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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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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Most likely future sample return missions?
Please bear in mind I have very little space/astronomy knowledge with any comments or answers but I am curious and quite keen to learn.
Aside from Mars itself as that is such a likely candidate, what ...
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Why is tantalum being used for the Hayabusa bullets?
The Hayabusa 2 probe is firing tantalum bullets at the asteroid Ryugu to knock off material that can be sampled. Why was tantalum chosen? That’s a pretty obscure element and I would assume rather rare....
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How exactly does this Apollo astronaut's tool work? What was it called?
The BBC News article Apollo in 50 numbers: Weights and Measures shows the following photo with the caption:
The astronauts brought back more than 360kg (790lb) of Moon rocks for study on Earth (...
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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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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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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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How to achieve escape velocity from Ceres?
If I am interested in a sample return mission to Ceres using a similar propulsion technology package to Dawn, what kinds of additional propulsion would be required to land and then return?
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Are rovers useful on low gravity, low atmosphere bodies?
Are rovers useful for exploring low atmosphere, low gravity objects? Are there more appropriate exploratory vehicles being proposed?
If I am interested in taking geological samples from a region ...
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Is there really moon rock in this cathedral window? If so, how, and from where on the Moon?
This Tweet by NASA Space Flight Editor Ian Atkinson says:
Some pictures from the Cathedral before the event starts, they have a table set up with artifacts from Apollo 8, including the flown flight ...
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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 NASA use Nitrogen storage for lunar regolith?
I asked this question earlier about how moon dust was regulated and got an answer stating that:
Eighty-three percent of that material remains unexamined in nitrogen
storage at NASA's Johnson ...
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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 ...