Tuesday, February 02, 2021

A decade of sample return space missions

Amazing stuff! One player seems to be missing, the European Union!

"... The year 2020 proved to be a big one for so-called sample return missions. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully touched down on the asteroid Bennu and collected an overflowing amount of material to bring back to Earth. It will begin the journey back in May.
In December, Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission finally brought back samples of the asteroid Ryugu. 
Later that month, China delivered the first new batch of moon rocks in over 45 years. ...
The most exciting sample return missions are still to come.
In just a few weeks the Perseverance Rover, launched last year, will land on Mars to explore the landscape for evidence of ancient (or present) life, which includes drilling and storing samples for return to Earth at a later date.
China is expected to pull off another delivery of moon rocks to Earth in 2023 with Chang’e 6.
Russia will do the same with Luna 28 in 2027.
Both Russia and China are expected to attempt sample returns missions to Mars before the decade is over.
Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, launching in 2024, will visit the Martian moon Phobos with plans to collect material from the surface and return it to Earth in 2029.
China is mulling a sample return mission to the dwarf planet Ceres. ..."

We’re living in a golden age of sample return missions | MIT Technology Review A spate of new missions this decade will deliver extraterrestrial rocks and rubble from all over the solar system. First up, Mars.

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