solarsystem_exploration_conf_010525 ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico Like Forest Gumps box of chocolates, you never know what youre going to get sampling planets and their
moons, comets or asteroids. Scientists are sketching out a new roadmap for robotic exploration of the solar system that could call for bringing back to Earth an assortment of celestial samples. A NASA-sponsored initiative has begun to blueprint an array of missions, with space scientists eager to accelerate the pace of discovery about our
solar system.By next year, an integrated 10-year plan for solar system exploration is to be completed, said James Papike, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexicos Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Papike is one of 14 scientists now engaged in tapping the talents of the space science community to help chart a master plan that includes the systematic sampling of the solar system, he told SPACE.com. "It means not just exploring Mars, but maybe going back to Asteroid Eros [or] sampling the atmosphere of Venus -- perhaps trying to land there and grab a sample before we melt," he said.
High level of ignorance
Scientists gathered here at the National Space Societys 20th Annual International Space Development Conference are taking part in a review of past and future spacecraft missions.
Their message is clear: Fundamental questions cannot be answered without samples brought back to Earth for detailed scrutiny. A balanced program is required, one built on Earth-based observations, flybys of objects, orbiters, landers, on-the-spot studies and, ultimately, sample return.
"Without that sample return, there is a high level of ignorance," Papike said.
Data gleaned by the
Mars Pathfinder lander and its Sojourner rover, as well as the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft that touched down on Eros are somewhat suspect. Dust and other materials can mask the true nature of an object, Papike said, but having samples in an Earth laboratory assures a more thorough and careful analysis.Radar eyes
Venus is a planet in upheaval, said Stephen Saunders, planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Why the Earth and Venus are so different is a question still demanding an answer, Saunders said. "One cannot say with confidence that one area of Venus is older or much younger than any other area," he said.
"Earth is a Venus gone wrong," Saunders said, recapping his involvement with the Magellan radar mapping mission that circled the cloud-shrouded planet in the 1990s for over four years.
Magellan showed us an Earth-sized planet with no evidence of Earth-like plate tectonics. At least 85 percent of the surface is covered with volcanic flows, the remainder by highly deformed mountain belts, Saunders said. At the completion of Magellans radar mapping duties, 98 percent of the surface was imaged and many areas were imaged multiple times
Saunders said that returning to
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