Comet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return explained

COmet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return (CORSAIR) is a concept mission to return comet nucleus samples to Earth for detailed analysis. The mission concept was submitted in May 2017 by a team from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in response to the New Frontiers program call for mission 4, but did not pass the initial down selection. As a comet sample return mission was not ultimately selected for mission 4 (Dragonfly, a Titan probe was selected), the CORSAIR team may re-submit the concept to a future New Frontiers program call.^[1]

Objectives

The CORSAIR goal is understanding the role of comets as ingredients for planets and life.^[2] If selected for development, CORSAIR would rendezvous with comet 88P/Howell for approximately 140 days to perform detailed physical and chemical characterization and return to Earth with comet samples of the nucleus and its coma.^{[2] [3]}

If selected for development, the mission would have launched in 2024, cruise to the comet would take 7 years, including two Earth gravity assists. Rendezvous with the 88P/Howell would happen in May 2031 and the interactions would last up to 294days. The return trip to Earth would take about 4.3 years.^[2]

Scientific payload

CORSAIR's conceptual scientific payload include:^[2]

• CORSAIR Dual Imaging System (CorDIS), for near and wide angle imaging of the nucleus surface
• Coma Dust Sampler (CDS) a Japanese-contributed coma dust flux monitoring and coma dust sampling system
• CORSAIR Altimetric Laser (CorAL), a copy of the OSIRIS-REx/OLA instrument for sample site topography and near-comet navigation
• CORSAIR THermal EMission Imaging System (C-THEMIS): a Mars Odyssey-heritage instrument for characterization of thermal inertia and mineralogical variability on the nucleus surface
• CORSAIR Mass Spectrometer (C-MaSt), a Swiss contribution from Rosetta/ROSINA heritage for coma and volatile measurements
• Proximity Cameras (ProxCams), are replicas of the OSIRIS-REx TagCams for near comet navigation and imaging of the sampling events
• Radio Science (RS), and onboard communications system to determine comet nucleus mass

Surface samples would be obtained with the use of a harpoon-like penetrator.^[4]

See also

• Abiogenesis
• Comet Nucleus Dust and Organics Return (CONDOR), a competing concept for mission #4
• List of missions to comets
• List of interstellar and circumstellar molecules

Notes and References

1. Web site: 海外ミッションを利用した太陽系サンプルリターン探査 . PDF . Advisory Committee for Space Engineering . 2019-10-13 . Japanese . 2019-10-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191013102555/http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/kougaku/03_report/29_senryaku/01_yano_senryaku29.pdf . dead .
2. https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2017/pdf/6125.pdf CORSAIR (COmet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return): A New Frontiers Mission Concept to Collect Samples from a Comet and Return them to Earth for Study
3. News: Proposed New Frontiers Missions . Future Planetary Exploration . 4 August 2017 . 2017-09-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170920093515/http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2017/08/proposed-new-frontiers-missions.html . 20 September 2017 . dead .
4. https://sbir.nasa.gov/SBIR/abstracts/16/sbir/phase2/SBIR-16-2-Z4.01-7700.html Triangular Rollable And Collapsible Boom (TRACTM Boom)