Scientists at the Japanese space agency JAXA are planning a new mission to bring back a sample of material from another celestial body to Earth. The target is Comet 289P/Blanpain. The mission is scheduled for the 2030s.
Comet mission
The Japanese space program is known for having carried out several unique unmanned missions that have brought asteroid samples back to Earth. And it seems that JAXA engineers have no intention of stopping there. It was already known that they were planning to launch a mission to study Mars’ moons. But now, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), they announced another piece of news.
The plan is for JAXA to launch a new mission in the 2030s to collect samples from a comet and return them to Earth. Spacecraft have previously explored the tails of these celestial bodies, but this is a much more complex task.
The mission, now known as Next Generation Small-Body Return (NGSR), aims to collect samples not just from the comet’s surface, but from deep within its nucleus. It will last 14 years, and eventually a capsule containing the samples is expected to return to Earth.
Comet 289P/Blanpain
The mission’s target is a very unusual object. Comet 289P/Blanpain was discovered as far back as 1819. However, it was not observed for nearly 200 years after that and was considered lost. However, in 2003, an asteroid was discovered where it was supposed to be, and in 2005, a gas envelope was observed around it. This confirmed that it is the nucleus of the former comet.
And, in fact, there is nothing mysterious about 289P/Blanpain in this regard. This is exactly how most short-period comets end their lives. The object is quite small, with a radius of only 160 meters, but it is on this object that Japanese researchers are pinning their hopes.
The fact is that comets are made up of material left over from the formation of the planets in the Solar System. In a sense, this is even pre-solar material, since our Sun itself formed from the same gas and dust cloud.
Comets spend most of their lives far from the Sun, which is why they preserve their original material intact. However, when they approach the Sun, they lose most of their volatile substances. But not all of them.
Flight plan
Beneath the surface of 289P/Blanpain lies primordial material that holds the secrets of the Solar System’s formation, and this object is not too far from Earth. That is why the NGSR mission is scheduled to visit it in 2041 and retrieve samples.
To do this, it will consist of a spacecraft similar to both Hayabusa probes and an impactor. The impactor is designed to crash into the nucleus of the dead comet at high speed and release whatever is hidden beneath the surface. The station itself will then collect the material.
The only problem is that, unlike materials from asteroids, the primordial matter of the Solar System is volatile and may simply not survive the journey to Earth. Therefore, almost immediately after collection, the NGSR will analyze it using a spectrograph and only then attempt to return it to our planet.
Provided by: phys.org
