Overview and Science of MMX 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiyoshi Kuramoto ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Surface Composition ◽  
Sampling Site ◽  
Martian Atmosphere ◽  
Satellite Orbits ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Martian Surface ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Hydrous Minerals ◽  
The Earth

<p>MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) is the 3rd sample return mission of JAXA/ISAS following Hayabusa and Hayabusa2. The MMX spacecraft will be launched in 2024 by an H-III rocket and make a round trip to the Martian system ~5 years. In the proximity of the Martian moons for 3 years, MMX will observe them along with the Martian atmosphere and surrounding space and conduct multiple landings on Phobos to collect Phoboss-indigenous materials. Owing to the lack of definitive evidence, the origin of Phobos and Deimos is under debate between the two leading hypotheses: the capture of volatile-rich primordial asteroid(s) and the in-situ formation from a debris disk that generated by a giant impact onto early Mars. Whichever theory is correct, the Martian moons likely preserve key records on the evolution of the early solar system and the formation of Mars. Through close-up observations of both moons and sample return from Phobos, MMX will settle the controversy of their origin, reveal their evolution, and elucidate the early solar system evolution around the region near the snow line. Global circulation and escape of the Martian atmosphere will also be monitored to reveal basic processes that have shaped and altered the Martian surface environment. The MMX spacecraft consists of three modules with chemical propulsion systems. By releasing used modules at appropriate timings, the spacecraft mass is reduced to allow orbital tuning to quasi-satellite orbits around Phobos, landings on Phobos surface, and the escape from the Martian gravity to return to the Earth. MMX will arrive at the Martian system in 2025 and start close-up observations of Phobos from quasi-satellite orbits. Among the total of 7 mounted instruments for scientific observations, TENGOO (telescope camera) and LIDAR will conduct high-resolution topography mapping and OROCHI (multi-band visible camera), MIRS (infra-red spectrometer provided by CNES), MEGANE (gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer provided by NASA), and MSA (ion mass spectrum analyzer) will survey surface composition and its heterogeneity. Hydrous minerals and interior ice are important observational targets because they, if identified, strongly support the capture hypothesis. Data taken by these instruments will be also useful for the landing site selection and characterization. Before the first landing, a rover (provided by CNES/DLR) will be released near the sampling site to collect data on surface regolith properties to be referred for the mothership landing operation. The rover will carry cameras, miniRAD (thermal mapper), and RAX (laser Raman spectrometer) to collect data on the physical and mineralogical characteristics of the Phobos surface around the sampling site. In early 2027, Mars will come to its closest approach to the Earth which minimizes the communication delay between the spacecraft and the Earth station. Together with the timing relatively far from Sun-Mars conjunctions and the Martian equinoxes, this period is the most favorable for landing operations that need real-time communication with the ground station and solar illumination undisturbed by eclipses. MMX will use two sampling systems, the C-sampler using a coring mechanism equipped on the tip of a manipulator and the P-sampler (provided by NASA) using a pneumatic mechanism equipped on a landing leg. After the stay near Phobos, the MMX spacecraft will be transferred to Deimos-flyby orbits to conduct Deimos observations, and then the return module will depart the Martian system in 2028. During the stay in the Martian system, MMX will also conduct wide-area observations of the Martian atmosphere using imagers (OROCHI, MIRS, and TENGOO) to study the atmospheric dynamics and the water vapor and dust transport. Simultanenousely, MSA will survey ions not only released and sputtered from Phobos's surface but also escaped from the Martian upper atmosphere. CMDM (dust monitor) will continuously survey the dust flux around the moons to assess the processes of space weathering by micrometeoroid bombardments and the possible formation of dust rings along the moons’ orbits. The sample capsule will come back to the Earth in 2029. Complimentarily with remote sensing studies, returned samples will provide us strong cosmo-chemical constraints for the origin of Phobos as well as those for early solar system processes.   </p>

scholarly journals Martian Moons Exploration MMX: Sample Return Mission to Phobos Elucidating Formation Processes of Habitable Planets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiyoshi Kuramoto ◽  
Yasuhiro Kawakatsu ◽  
Masaki Fujimoto ◽  
Akito Araya ◽  
Maria Antonietta Barucci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Martian Atmosphere ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Sample Return Mission ◽  
Spacecraft Orbits ◽  
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ◽  
Surface Environment

Abstract Martian moons exploration, MMX, is the new sample return mission planned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) targeting the two Martian moons with a scheduled launch in 2024 and a return to the Earth in 2029. The major scientific objectives of this mission are to determine the origin of Phobos and Deimos, to elucidate the early Solar System evolution in terms of volatile delivery across the snow line to the terrestrial planets having habitable surface environments, and to explore the evolutionary processes of both moons and Mars surface environment. To achieve these objectives, during a stay in circum-Martian space over about 3 years MMX will collect samples from Phobos along with close-up observations of this inner moon and carry out multiple flybys of Deimos to make comparative observations of this outer moon. Simultaneously, successive observations of the Martian atmosphere will also be made by utilizing the advantage of quasi-equatorial spacecraft orbits along the moons’ orbits.

Science and Exploration of the Moon: Overview

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley L. Jolliff
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Space Environment ◽  
Cold Trap ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Geologic History ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

Earth’s moon, hereafter referred to as “the Moon,” has been an object of intense study since before the time of the Apollo and Luna missions to the lunar surface and associated sample returns. As a differentiated rocky body and as Earth’s companion in the solar system, much study has been given to aspects such as the Moon’s surface characteristics, composition, interior, geologic history, origin, and what it records about the early history of the Earth-Moon system and the evolution of differentiated rocky bodies in the solar system. Much of the Apollo and post-Apollo knowledge came from surface geologic exploration, remote sensing, and extensive studies of the lunar samples. After a hiatus of nearly two decades following the end of Apollo and Luna missions, a new era of lunar exploration began with a series of orbital missions, including missions designed to prepare the way for longer duration human use and further exploration of the Moon. Participation in these missions has become international. The more recent missions have provided global context and have investigated composition, mineralogy, topography, gravity, tectonics, thermal evolution of the interior, thermal and radiation environments at the surface, exosphere composition and phenomena, and characteristics of the poles with their permanently shaded cold-trap environments. New samples were recognized as a class of achondrite meteorites, shown through geochemical and mineralogical similarities to have originated on the Moon. New sample-based studies with ever-improving analytical techniques and approaches have also led to significant discoveries such as the determination of volatile contents, including intrinsic H contents of lunar minerals and glasses. The Moon preserves a record of the impact history of the solar system, and new developments in timing of events, sample based and model based, are leading to a new reckoning of planetary chronology and the events that occurred in the early solar system. The new data provide the grist to test models of formation of the Moon and its early differentiation, and its thermal and volcanic evolution. Thought to have been born of a giant impact into early Earth, new data are providing key constraints on timing and process. The new data are also being used to test hypotheses and work out details such as for the magma ocean concept, the possible existence of an early magnetic field generated by a core dynamo, the effects of intense asteroidal and cometary bombardment during the first 500 million–600 million years, sequestration of volatile compounds at the poles, volcanism through time, including new information about the youngest volcanism on the Moon, and the formation and degradation processes of impact craters, so well preserved on the Moon. The Moon is a natural laboratory and cornerstone for understanding many processes operating in the space environment of the Earth and Moon, now and in the past, and of the geologic processes that have affected the planets through time. The Moon is a destination for further human exploration and activity, including use of valuable resources in space. It behooves humanity to learn as much about Earth’s nearest neighbor in space as possible.

scholarly journals The Importance of Phobos Sample Return for Understanding the Mars-Moon System

2020 ◽  
Vol 216 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomohiro Usui ◽  
Ken-ichi Bajo ◽  
Wataru Fujiya ◽  
Yoshihiro Furukawa ◽  
Mizuho Koike ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Sampling Site ◽  
Bulk Composition ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Radiometric Dating ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
On The Road

Abstract Phobos and Deimos occupy unique positions both scientifically and programmatically on the road to the exploration of the solar system. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans a Phobos sample return mission (MMX: Martian Moons eXploration). The MMX spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in 2024, orbit both Phobos and Deimos (multiple flybys), and retrieve and return >10 g of Phobos regolith back to Earth in 2029. The Phobos regolith represents a mixture of endogenous Phobos building blocks and exogenous materials that contain solar system projectiles (e.g., interplanetary dust particles and coarser materials) and ejecta from Mars and Deimos. Under the condition that the representativeness of the sampling site(s) is guaranteed by remote sensing observations in the geologic context of Phobos, laboratory analysis (e.g., mineralogy, bulk composition, O-Cr-Ti isotopic systematics, and radiometric dating) of the returned sample will provide crucial information about the moon’s origin: capture of an asteroid or in-situ formation by a giant impact. If Phobos proves to be a captured object, isotopic compositions of volatile elements (e.g., D/H, 13C/12C, 15N/14N) in inorganic and organic materials will shed light on both organic-mineral-water/ice interactions in a primitive rocky body originally formed in the outer solar system and the delivery process of water and organics into the inner rocky planets.

scholarly journals Phase Relations in MAFSH System up to 21 GPa: Implications for Water Cycles in Martian Interior

Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 559
Author(s):  
Chaowen Xu ◽  
Toru Inoue
Keyword(s):  
Phase Relation ◽  
Phase Relations ◽  
Lower Pressure ◽  
Martian Surface ◽  
Hydrous Minerals ◽  
Transition Pressure ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Deep Interior ◽  
Water Cycles

To elucidate the water cycles in iron-rich Mars, we investigated the phase relation of a water-undersaturated (2 wt.%) analog of Martian mantle in simplified MgO-Al2O3-FeO-SiO2-H2O (MAFSH) system between 15 and 21 GPa at 900–1500 °C using a multi-anvil apparatus. Results showed that phase E coexisting with wadsleyite or ringwoodite was at least stable at 15–16.5 GPa and below 1050 °C. Phase D coexisted with ringwoodite at pressures higher than 16.5 GPa and temperatures below 1100 °C. The transition pressure of the loop at the wadsleyite-ringwoodite boundary shifted towards lower pressure in an iron-rich system compared with a hydrous pyrolite model of the Earth. Some evidence indicates that water once existed on the Martian surface on ancient Mars. The water present in the hydrous crust might have been brought into the deep interior by the convecting mantle. Therefore, water might have been transported to the deep Martian interior by hydrous minerals, such as phase E and phase D, in cold subduction plates. Moreover, it might have been stored in wadsleyite or ringwoodite after those hydrous materials decomposed when the plates equilibrated thermally with the surrounding Martian mantle.

scholarly journals The Movement of Small Particulate Matter in the Early Solar System and the Formation of Satellites

1974 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 483-485
Author(s):  
T. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Vapor Pressure ◽  
Solar Nebula ◽  
Satellite Orbits ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Solar System Formation ◽  
Tidal Friction ◽  
Collision Orbits

Satellites are a common feature in the solar system, and all planets on which satellite orbits would be stable possess them. (For Mercury the solar perturbation is too large, and the retrograde spin of Venus would cause satellites to spiral in to the planet through tidal friction.) An explanation of the formation of satellites must hence be one which makes the phenomenon exceedingly probable at some stage in the solar system formation processes, and very improbable processes like a capture cannot be the answer in most cases.Small particulate matter must have been very abundant in the early solar nebula. Such particulate matter must have existed both from the first condensation of the low vapor pressure components of the gas in the first round, and it must also have been composed of material scattered from impacts after some major bodies had begun to form, frequently finding themselves no doubt on collision orbits.

scholarly journals Exploring the Bimodal Solar System via Sample Return from the Main Asteroid Belt: The Case for Revisiting Ceres

2020 ◽  
Vol 216 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Burbine ◽  
Richard C. Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Main Belt ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Dawn Mission ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Sample Return Mission ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Cost Implications

Abstract Sample return from a main-belt asteroid has not yet been attempted, but appears technologically feasible. While the cost implications are significant, the scientific case for such a mission appears overwhelming. As suggested by the “Grand Tack” model, the structure of the main belt was likely forged during the earliest stages of Solar System evolution in response to migration of the giant planets. Returning samples from the main belt has the potential to test such planet migration models and the related geochemical and isotopic concept of a bimodal Solar System. Isotopic studies demonstrate distinct compositional differences between samples believed to be derived from the outer Solar System (CC or carbonaceous chondrite group) and those that are thought to be derived from the inner Solar System (NC or non-carbonaceous group). These two groups are separated on relevant isotopic variation diagrams by a clear compositional gap. The interface between these two regions appears to be broadly coincident with the present location of the asteroid belt, which contains material derived from both groups. The Hayabusa mission to near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (25143) Itokawa has shown what can be learned from a sample-return mission to an asteroid, even with a very small amount of sample. One scenario for main-belt sample return involves a spacecraft launching a projectile that strikes an object and flying through the debris cloud, which would potentially allow multiple bodies to be sampled if a number of projectiles are used on different asteroids. Another scenario is the more traditional method of landing on an asteroid to obtain the sample. A significant range of main-belt asteroids are available as targets for a sample-return mission and such a mission would represent a first step in mineralogically and isotopically mapping the asteroid belt. We argue that a sample-return mission to the asteroid belt does not necessarily have to return material from both the NC and CC groups to viably test the bimodal Solar System paradigm, as material from the NC group is already abundantly available for study. Instead, there is overwhelming evidence that we have a very incomplete suite of CC-related samples. Based on our analysis, we advocate a dedicated sample-return mission to the dwarf planet (1) Ceres as the best means of further exploring inherent Solar System variation. Ceres is an ice-rich world that may be a displaced trans-Neptunian object. We almost certainly do not have any meteorites that closely resemble material that would be brought back from Ceres. The rich heritage of data acquired by the Dawn mission makes a sample-return mission from Ceres logistically feasible at a realistic cost. No other potential main-belt target is capable of providing as much insight into the early Solar System as Ceres. Such a mission should be given the highest priority by the international scientific community.

scholarly journals Delivery of Complex Organic Compounds from Planetary Nebulae to the Solar System

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Kwok
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Chemical Structure ◽  
Planetary Nebulae ◽  
Early Earth ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Planetary Satellites ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Complex Organic

AbstractInfrared spectroscopic observations of planetary nebulae and proto-planetary nebulae have shown that complex organic compounds are synthesized in these objects over periods as short as a thousand years. These compounds are ejected into the interstellar medium and spread throughout the Galaxy. Evidence from meteorites has shown that these stellar grains have reached the Solar System, and may have showered the Earth during the heavy bombardment stage of the Early Earth. In this paper, we discuss the chemical structure of stellar organic grains and compare them to the organic matter found in meteorites, comets, asteroids, planetary satellites, and interplanetary particles. The possibility that the early Solar System was chemically enriched by organic compounds ejected from distant stars is presented.

scholarly journals Color, composition, and thermal environment of Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 367 (6481) ◽  
pp. eaay3705 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Grundy ◽  
M. K. Bird ◽  
D. T. Britt ◽  
J. C. Cook ◽  
D. P. Cruikshank ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Surface Composition ◽  
Thermal Environment ◽  
Kuiper Belt ◽  
Outer Edge ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Water Ice ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Simple Molecules

The outer Solar System object (486958) Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU69) has been largely undisturbed since its formation. We studied its surface composition using data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft. Methanol ice is present along with organic material, which may have formed through irradiation of simple molecules. Water ice was not detected. This composition indicates hydrogenation of carbon monoxide–rich ice and/or energetic processing of methane condensed on water ice grains in the cold, outer edge of the early Solar System. There are only small regional variations in color and spectra across the surface, which suggests that Arrokoth formed from a homogeneous or well-mixed reservoir of solids. Microwave thermal emission from the winter night side is consistent with a mean brightness temperature of 29 ± 5 kelvin.

Excess 15N in the martian atmosphere and cosmic rays in the early Solar System

Nature ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 274 (5668) ◽  
pp. 234-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHOHEI YANAGITA ◽  
MINEO IMAMURA
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Rays ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Martian Atmosphere ◽  
Early Solar System

The Origin of the Moon

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Ruskol
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

The difference between average densities of the Moon and Earth was interpreted in the preceding report by Professor H. Urey as indicating a difference in their chemical composition. Therefore, Urey assumes the Moon's formation to have taken place far away from the Earth, under conditions differing substantially from the conditions of Earth's formation. In such a case, the Earth should have captured the Moon. As is admitted by Professor Urey himself, such a capture is a very improbable event. In addition, an assumption that the “lunar” dimensions were representative of protoplanetary bodies in the entire solar system encounters great difficulties.

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