Concerns of Organic Contamination for Sample Return Space Missions
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Concerns of Organic Contamination for Sample Return Space Missions Queenie Hoi Shan Chan1,2 · Rhonda Stroud3 · Zita Martins4 · Hikaru Yabuta5
Received: 27 June 2019 / Accepted: 23 April 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Analysis of organic matter has been one of the major motivations behind solar system exploration missions. It addresses questions related to the organic inventory of our solar system and its implication for the origin of life on Earth. Sample return missions aim at returning scientifically valuable samples from target celestial bodies to Earth. By analysing the samples with the use of state-of-the-art analytical techniques in laboratories here on Earth, researchers can address extremely complicated aspects of extra-terrestrial organic matter. This level of detailed sample characterisation provides the range and depth in organic analysis that are restricted in spacecraft-based exploration missions, due to the limitations of the on-board in-situ instrumentation capabilities. So far, there are four completed and inprocess sample return missions with an explicit mandate to collect organic matter: Stardust and OSIRIS-REx missions of NASA, and Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions of JAXA. Regardless of the target body, all sample return missions dedicate to minimise terrestrial organic contamination of the returned samples, by applying various degrees or strategies of organic contamination mitigation methods. Despite the dedicated efforts in the design and execution of contamination control, it is impossible to completely eliminate sources of organic contamination. This paper aims at providing an overview of the successes and Role of Sample Return in Addressing Major Questions in Planetary Sciences Edited by Mahesh Anand, Sara Russell, Yangting Lin, Meenakshi Wadhwa, Kuljeet Kaur Marhas and Shogo Tachibana
B Q.H.S. Chan
[email protected]; [email protected]
1
Planetary and Space Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
2
Present address: Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham Surrey TW20 0EX, UK
3
Code 6360, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
4
Centro de Química Estrutural, Departamento de Engenharia Química, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
5
Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
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Q.H.S. Chan et al.
lessons learned with regards to the identification of indigenous organic matter of the returned samples vs terrestrial contamination. Keywords Sample return · Contamination · Organic matter · Comets · Asteroids · Extra-terrestrial samples
1 Introduction Better understanding of the types of organic matter in the early solar system, and its subsequent evolution, is key to addressing the origin of life on Earth, and to its potential detection elsewhere in the solar system or beyond. Among the fundamental questio
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