Bibcode
Licandro, J.
Referencia bibliográfica
Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics V, Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings. ISBN 978-3-642-11249-2. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2010, p. 191
Advertised on:
2010
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
A description of the Spanish contribution to the Marco Polo mission and
of the mission itself is presented. Marco Polo is a joint
European-Japanese mission of sample return from a Near Earth Object
(NEO). Submitted to ESA on July 2007 in the framework of the Cosmic
Vision 2015-2025, Marco Polo passed the first evaluation process on
October 2007. Seventeen Spanish researchers belonging to six Spanish
institutes signed the proposal. The mission is planned to visit a
primitive NEO, belonging to a class that cannot be related to known
meteorite types, to characterize it at multiple scales, and to bring
samples back to Earth. Marco Polo will give us the first opportunity for
detailed laboratory study of the most primitive materials that formed
the planets. This will allow us to improve our knowledge on the
processes which governed the origin and early evolution of the Solar
System, and possibly of the life on Earth. Three Spanish institutes are
involved in the feasibility studies of two instruments: the THERmal
MAPper (THERMAP) and the Marco Polo Camera System (MPCS).