Triple F-a comet nucleus sample return mission

Michael Küppers*, H. U. Keller, E. Kührt, M. F. A'Hearn, K. Altwegg, R. Bertrand, H. Busemann, M. T. Capria, L. Colangeli, B. Davidsson, P. Ehrenfreund, J. Knollenberg, S. Mottola, A. Rathke, P. Weiss, M. Zolensky, E. Akim, A. Basilevsky, E. Galimov, M. GerasimovO. Korablev, I. Lomakin, M. Marov, M. Martynov, M. Nazarov, A. Zakharov, L. Zelenyi, A. Aronica, A. J. Ball, C. Barbieri, A. Bar-Nun, J. Benkhoff, J. Biele, N. Biver, J. Blum, D. Bockelée-Morvan, O. Botta, J. H. Bredehöft, F. Capaccioni, S. Charnley, E. Cloutis, H. Cottin, G. Cremonese, J. Crovisier, S. A. Crowther, E. M. Epifani, F. Esposito, A. C. Ferrari, F. Ferri, M. Fulle, J. Gilmour, F. Goesmann, N. Gortsas, S. F. Green, O. Groussin, E. Grün, P. J. Gutiérrez, P. Hartogh, T. Henkel, M. Hilchenbach, T. M. Ho, G. Horneck, S. F. Hviid, W. H. Ip, A. Jäckel, E. Jessberger, R. Kallenbach, G. Kargl, N. I. Kömle, A. Korth, K. Kossacki, C. Krause, H. Krüger, Z. Y. Li, J. Licandro, J. J. Lopez-Moreno, S. C. Lowry, I. Lyon, G. Magni, U. Mall, I. Mann, W. Markiewicz, Z. Martins, M. Maurette, U. Meierhenrich, V. Mennella, T. C. Ng, L. R. Nittler, P. Palumbo, M. Pätzold, D. Prialnik, M. Rengel, H. Rickman, J. Rodriguez, R. Roll, D. Rost, A. Rotundi, S. Sandford, M. Schönbächler, H. Sierks, R. Srama, R. M. Stroud, S. Szutowicz, C. Tornow, S. Ulamec, M. Wallis, W. Waniak, P. Weissman, R. Wieler, P. Wurz, K. L. Yung, J. C. Zarnecki

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Triple F (Fresh From the Fridge) mission, a Comet Nucleus Sample Return, has been proposed to ESA's Cosmic Vision program. A sample return from a comet enables us to reach the ultimate goal of cometary research. Since comets are the least processed bodies in the solar system, the proposal goes far beyond cometary science topics (like the explanation of cometary activity) and delivers invaluable information about the formation of the solar system and the interstellar molecular cloud from which it formed. The proposed mission would extract three sample cores of the upper 50cm from three locations on a cometary nucleus and return them cooled to Earth for analysis in the laboratory. The simple mission concept with a touch-and-go sampling by a single spacecraft was proposed as an M-class mission in collaboration with the Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)809-847
Number of pages39
JournalExperimental Astronomy
Volume23
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2009

Funding

FundersFunder number
Science and Technology Facilities CouncilST/F003102/1, PP/E000894/1

    Keywords

    • Comets
    • Cosmogony
    • Sample return
    • Space mission

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