Extraterrestrial material analysis: Achievements and future opportunities for laboratory analysis in NASA and ESA planetary programmes

Abstract

Achievements in the understanding of the nature and distribution of extraterrestrial material recovered from space missions and stratospheric collection of “Brownlee particles” are examined in the context of the analytical techniques which have been applied to their study. A very wide range of powerful tools and techniques is now available for the study of both “pristine” samples and those modified by various capture and collection techniques. Though the Space Shuttle era has provided good opportunity for recovery of space materials, the NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) still awaits retrieval after 29 months exposure; prospects for retrieval are not imminent following the Challenger disaster of January 28 1986. An unplanned “chance” recovery of such material from the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) thermal blankets and louvres has meanwhile provided such an opportunity; clear evidence of a bimodal population, comprising a natural and a space-activity-related debris population is reported. SMM has successfully demonstrated the retrieval of components of unmodified material by its multiple foil low density target configurations, and hence paves the way for cometary sample capture fly-by missions and the deployment of Facility Systems in the context of NASA's Space Station and Europe's Columbus programme. Mission objectives and opportunities on the Cometary Atmosphere and Earth Sample Return mission proposal (CAESAR) are reviewed and, further ahead, those for the proposed ESA/NASA Cometary Nucleus Sample Return missions (CNSR).