We have investigated how morphological biosignatures (i.e., features related to life) might be identified with an array of viable instruments within the framework of robotic planetary surface operations at Mars. This is the first time such an integrated lab-based study has been conducted that incorporates space-qualified instrumentation designed for combined in situ imaging, analysis, and geotechnics (sampling). Specimens were selected on the basis of feature morphology, scale, and analogy to Mars rocks. Two types of morphological criteria were considered: potential signatures of extinct life (fossilized microbial filaments) and of extant life (crypto-chasmoendolithic microorganisms). The materials originated from a variety of topical martian analogue localities on Earth, including impact craters, high-latitude deserts, and hydrothermal deposits. Our in situ payload included a stereo camera, microscope, M?ssbauer spectrometer, and sampling device (all space-qualified units from Beagle 2), and an array of commercial instruments, including a multi-spectral imager, an X-ray spectrometer (calibrated to the Beagle 2 instrument), a micro-Raman spectrometer, and a bespoke (custom-designed) X-ray diffractometer. All experiments were conducted within the engineering constraints of in situ operations to generate realistic data and address the practical challenges of measurement. Our results demonstrate the importance of an integrated approach for this type of work. Each technique made a proportionate contribution to the overall effectiveness of our "pseudopayload" for biogenic assessment of samples yet highlighted a number of limitations of current space instrument technology for in situ astrobiology. 相似文献
Space Science Reviews - The InSight lander will deliver geophysical instruments to Mars in 2018, including seismometers installed directly on the surface (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure,... 相似文献
The InSight mission will land a single seismic station on Mars in November 2018, and the resultant seismicity catalog will be a key component for studies aiming to understand the interior structure of the planet. Here, we present a preliminary version of the web services that will be used to distribute the event and station metadata in practice, employing synthetic seismograms generated for Mars using a catalog of expected seismicity. Our seismicity catalog consists of 120 events with double-couple source mechanisms only. We also provide Green’s functions databases for a total of 16 structural models, which are constructed to reflect one-dimensional thin (30 km) and thick (80 km) Martian crust with varying seismic wave speeds and densities, combined with two different profiles for temperature and composition for the mantle. Both the Green’s functions databases and the precomputed seismograms are accessible online. These new utilities allow the researchers to either download the precomputed synthetic waveforms directly, or produce customized data sets using any desired source mechanism and event distribution via our servers.
For the success of NASA’s new vision for space exploration to Moon, Mars and beyond, exposures from the hazards of severe space radiation in deep space long duration missions is ‘a must solve’ problem. The payload penalty demands a very stringent requirement on the design of the spacecrafts for human deep space missions. The exploration beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) to enable routine access of space will require protection from the hazards of the accumulated exposures of space radiation, Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) and Solar Particle Events (SPE), and minimizing the production of secondary radiation is a great advantage. There is a need to look to new horizons for newer technologies. The present investigation revisits electrostatic active radiation shielding and explores the feasibility of using the electrostatic shielding in concert with the state-of-the-art materials shielding and protection technologies. The full space radiation environment has been used, for the first time, to explore the feasibility of electrostatic shielding. The goal is to repel enough positive charge ions so that they miss the spacecraft without attracting thermal electrons. Conclusions are drawn for the future directions of space radiation protection. 相似文献
We present a concept for a challenging in situ science mission to a primitive, binary near-Earth asteroid. A sub-400-kg spacecraft would use solar electric propulsion to rendezvous with the C-class binary asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3. A campaign of remote observations of both worlds would be followed by landing on the ∼1 km diameter primary to perform in situ measurements. The total available payload mass would be around 34 kg, allowing a wide range of measurement objectives to be addressed. This mission arose during 2004 from the activities of the ad-hoc Small Bodies Group of the DLR-led Planetary Lander Initiative. Although the particular mission scenario proposed here was not studied further per se, the experience was carried over to subsequent European asteroid mission studies, including first LEONARD and now the Marco Polo near-Earth asteroid sample return proposal for ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme. This paper may thus be of interest as much for insight into the life cycle of mission proposals as for the concept itself. 相似文献
We describe the Genesis mission solar-wind sample collection period and the solar wind conditions at the L1 point during this 2.3-year period. In order to relate the solar wind samples to solar composition, the conditions under which the samples were collected must be understood in the context of the long-term solar wind. We find that the state of the solar wind was typical of conditions over the past four solar cycles. However, Genesis spent a relatively large fraction of the time in coronal-hole flow as compared to what might have been expected for the declining phase of the solar cycle. Data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS) on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) are used to determine the effectiveness of the Genesis solar-wind regime selection algorithm. The data collected by SWICS confirm that the Genesis algorithm successfully separated and collected solar wind regimes having distinct solar origins, particularly in the case of the coronal hole sample. The SWICS data also demonstrate that the different regimes are elementally fractionated. When compared with Ulysses composition data from the previous solar cycle, we find a similar degree of fractionation between regimes as well as fractionation relative to the average photospheric composition. The Genesis solar wind samples are under long-term curation at NASA Johnson Space Center so that as sample analysis techniques evolve, pristine solar wind samples will be available to the scientific community in the decades to come. This article and a companion paper (Wiens et al. 2013, this issue) provide post-flight information necessary for the analysis of the Genesis array and foil solar wind samples and the Genesis solar wind ion concentrator samples, and thus serve to complement the Space Science Review volume, The Genesis Mission (v. 105, 2003). 相似文献
The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) is one of the payload science instruments on the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry,
and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission, which launched on August 3, 2004. The altimeter will measure the round-trip time of flight
of transmitted laser pulses reflected from the surface of the planet that, in combination with the spacecraft orbit position
and pointing data, gives a high-precision measurement of surface topography referenced to Mercury’s center of mass. MLA will
sample the planet’s surface to within a 1-m range error when the line-of-sight range to Mercury is less than 1,200 km under
spacecraft nadir pointing or the slant range is less than 800 km. The altimeter measurements will be used to determine the
planet’s forced physical librations by tracking the motion of large-scale topographic features as a function of time. MLA’s
laser pulse energy monitor and the echo pulse energy estimate will provide an active measurement of the surface reflectivity
at 1,064 nm. This paper describes the instrument design, prelaunch testing, calibration, and results of postlaunch testing. 相似文献
MUPUS, the multi purpose sensor package onboard the Rosetta lander Philae, will measure the energy balance and the physical parameters in the near-surface layers – up to about 30 cm depth- of the
nucleus of Rosetta’s target comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Moreover it will monitor changes in these parameters over time as
the comet approaches the sun. Among the parameters studied are the density, the porosity, cohesion, the thermal diffusivity
and conductivity, and temperature. The data should increase our knowledge of how comets work, and how the coma gases form.
The data may also be used to constrain the microstructure of the nucleus material. Changes with time of physical properties
will reveal timescales and possibly the nature of processes that modify the material close to the surface. Thereby, the data
will indicate how pristine cometary matter sampled and analysed by other experiments on Philae really is. 相似文献
A Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) instrument has been developed as part of the science payload for NASA’s Discovery
Program mission to the planet Mercury. Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) launched
successfully in 2004 and will journey more than six years before entering Mercury orbit to begin a one-year investigation.
The GRNS instrument forms part of the geochemistry investigation and will yield maps of the elemental composition of the planet
surface. Major elements include H, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, K, and Th. The Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) portion detects
gamma-ray emissions in the 0.1- to 10-MeV energy range and achieves an energy resolution of 3.5 keV full-width at half-maximum
for 60Co (1332 keV). It is the first interplanetary use of a mechanically cooled Ge detector. Special construction techniques provide
the necessary thermal isolation to maintain the sensor’s encapsulated detector at cryogenic temperatures (90 K) despite the
intense thermal environment. Given the mission constraints, the GRS sensor is necessarily body-mounted to the spacecraft,
but the outer housing is equipped with an anticoincidence shield to reduce the background from charged particles. The Neutron
Spectrometer (NS) sensor consists of a sandwich of three scintillation detectors working in concert to measure the flux of
ejected neutrons in three energy ranges from thermal to ∼7 MeV. The NS is particularly sensitive to H content and will help
resolve the composition of Mercury’s polar deposits. This paper provides an overview of the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer
and describes its science and measurement objectives, the design and operation of the instrument, the ground calibration effort,
and a look at some early in-flight data. 相似文献