Suess-Urey mission (return of solar matter to Earth)

Donald Rapp, Firouz Naderi, Marcia Neugebauer, Donald Sevilla, Donald Sweetnam, Donald Burnett, Roger Wiens, Nicholas Smith, Benton Clark, David McComas, Eileen Stansbery

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Suess-Urey (S-U) mission has been proposed as a NASA Discovery mission to return samples of matter from the Sun to the Earth for isotopic and chemical analyses in terrestrial laboratories to provide a major improvement in our knowledge of the average chemical and isotopic composition of the solar system. The S-U spacecraft and sample return capsule will be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 Sun-Earth libration point for two years to collect solar wind ions which implant into large passive collectors made of ultra-pure materials. Constant Spacecraft-Sun-Earth geometries enable simple spin stabilized attitude control, simple passive thermal control, and a fixed medium gain antenna. Low data requirements and the safety of a Sun-pointed spinner, result in extremely low mission operations costs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)229-238
Number of pages10
JournalUnknown Journal
Volume39
Issue number1-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 1996 2nd IAA International Conference on Low-Cost Planetary Missions - Laurel, MD, USA
Duration: Apr 16 1996Apr 19 1996

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Aerospace Engineering

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