The Japanese aerospace exploration agency (JAXA) carried out revolutionary science with its missions Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2 (Japanese for “Peregrine Falcon”). In 2005 and 2018, these missions carried out a decline in rehearsal missions from the near-earth seeds (NEAS) 25143 ITOKAWA and Ryugu (1998 KY26). The research of these samples has provided an insight into the neas and the development of the solar system, since asteroids are essentially left from the formation of the solar system (approx. 4.6 billion years ago).
A team of international researchers recommends building a small body sample return (small body trial return) with their concept for a mission of the next generation. Her proposal was the subject of a paper that the Lunar Science Planetary Conference (2025 LSPC) was submitted in 2025, which took place in Woodlands, Texas, from March 10th to 14th. This mission is a candidate that is currently being considered for a Japanese mission of the strategic class to return samples from a comet in the 2030s.
The study was run by Naoya Sakatani, a researcher at the Jaxas Institute for Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). He was JOINED BY FELLOW Researchers From Jaxa, The University of Tokyo, Osaka University, The Institute of Science Tokyo, Tohoku University, The Université Paris Cité/Institut de Physique Du Globe, The Chiba Institute of Technology, The Oshima National College of Maritime Technology, The Japan Spaceguard Association, Purdue University, Kyusyu University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).
This paper is based on previous studies, which Shigeru Wakita, a research scientist of the MIT, and Purdue (a co-author of this latest study). Research was submitted to the 2023 LSPC and the 2023 asteroids, comets, Meteor's Conference. The team carried out this concept study for the NGSR Science Working Group at the Jaxa Institute of Space Astronautical Science. They find that despite the recent breakthroughs in NEA research, the origins of solar system material and the way in which the first shaped planetism -senses are still an open question.
In order to achieve these goals, the NGSR concept will carry out a rehearsal repayment with a comet. Like its predecessors, which include the Hayabusa missions and the origins of NASA, the spectral interpretation, resource identification and the mission for security regolite explorer (OSIRIS-REX), this mission will be aimed at underground materials. This enables access to material that is not affected by cyclical sun heating and radiation, which means that information about the original composition and the history of education of the body is preserved.
This will help refine models for the formation and development of solar systems and to answer several unanswered questions about the origin of the material in the solar system. According to current models of the formation of solar systems, the sun and its planets made up of fog material – the nebular hypothesis. The rehearsal analysis of the original material remaining from this process becomes the composition of the solar nebel and complement the recent results to samples that have been returned from Neas.
The analysis of samples of 25143 ITOKAWA, Bennu and Ryugu showed the presence of organic substance, including amino acids. Therefore, the analysis of comet samples could deal with whether organic materials in connection with the development of life come from extraterrestrial sources. As in your paper says:
“One of the main questions in planetary science is how original materials in the solar system were generated in our galaxy. In the assoidal material that we mainly received, presolar grains are significantly influenced by metamorphism and changes in the parent's parent. Research into premolic materials from comatic samples is urgently required.”
In addition, the foggy hypothesis states that a remaining fog ie material, as soon as the sun has been formed, fell into a protoplanetary disc that slowly forms on the planets. Therefore, a sample return from a comet will also answer unanswered questions about the distribution of the material within the hard drive. For example, scientists theorize that comets that come from the outer solar system provided water and organic molecules for the inner solar system for billions of years ago.
“The biggest secret in the accumulation of dust that leads to planets is the very first step: the formation of the planetensimal. In the process of the micrometer, the size of the micrometer, which accumulates in kilometer size (planetesimal), there is some barriers, such as the gas unfortunate in the solar anbula, in which dust spiral turns the sun.”
In addition, it is theoretized that asteroids such as Ryugu were processed in larger parent bodies, followed by catastrophic destruction and resumption. As a result, all physical information about her parent body has been lost. The materials and the inner structure of unprocessed body (ie comet) are necessary to empirically understand the planetesimal formation. Your proposed mission concept consists of a Deep Space Orbital Transfer Vehicle (DSOTV) and a lander that tries the inner material of the comet.
They point out that the nominal goal is a Jupiter family committee and NEA 289P/Blanpain, which passed in 2020 within 13,588,735 km (8,443,650 mi). After the NGSR rendezvouses with the comet, she will measure on an optical marine secretary to measure its topography and shape. The Lander and the DSOTV examine the object with a radar, while the gravity measurements are carried out with lidar. A thermal infrared camera analyzes its physical properties, while the interior structure of a comet is examined using a bistatic radar and seismometer.
Finally, it extracts samples with a small hand luggage impactor (SCI), which was successfully tested with the Hayabusa 2 mission. It then analyzes it using a mass spectrometer to carry out the in-situ analysis of the extracted materials. Finally, the samples on board the landing are freezed and transported to the rehearsal return capsule on board the DSOTV. Assuming a start window of 2034, the mission will take a total of 14 years and will be the earth about the ultra-high speed resignation on the beyond Mars.
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