21
Sep
Posted by shakti, under Extraterrestrial
Europe space mission to grab asteroid sample
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| An ambitious space mission that seeks to bring back material from asteroids is being designed by European scientists. The venture, known as Marco Polo, could launch in the next decade, and would be designed to learn more about how our solar system evolved. The plan is to select a small asteroid — less than 1km across — near Earth and send a spacecraft there to drill for dust and rubble for analysis. Mission plans are being worked on by UK Astrium and OHB in Germany, reported BBC News. Both satellite manufacturers have been asked to undertake a feasibility study, to assess the type of spacecraft architecture that would be needed to carry out the project. A final decision on whether to approve the mission will be made by the European Space Agency (Esa) in a few years’ time. The mission would launch towards the end of the next decade, in about 2017. Asteroids are the debris left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Studying their pristine material should provide new insights about how the solar system came into being and how planets like Earth evolved. “We’ll be looking at the best solution for getting there and back,” UK Astrium’s Dr Ralph Cordey told BBC News. “We’ve got to look at all elements of the mission — how we would design the mission, how to design the trajectory to one of a number of possible asteroids, how to optimise that so we use the smallest spacecraft, the least fuel and the smallest rocket.” Source : Times Of India |
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