&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Caesar-sample_return_concept_2018.png) An artist's concept of CAESAR obtaining a sample from comet 67P. | |
| Mission type | Sample return |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| Website | caesar |
| Mission duration | 14 years, 3 months (proposed) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Northrop Grumman (proposed)[1] |
| Dimensions | Solar panels length: 43.5 m [2] |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | August 2024 (proposed)[3] |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | November 2038 (proposed)[3][4] |
| Landing site | Utah Test and Training Range[3] |
| Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko orbiter | |
| Orbital insertion | January 2029 (proposed)[3] |
| Orbital departure | February 2032 (proposed)[3] |
| Sample mass | 80 to 800 g (2.8 to 28.2 oz) |
CAESAR (Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return) is a sample-return mission concept to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The mission was proposed in 2017 to NASA's New Frontiers program mission 4, and on 20 December 2017 it was one of two finalists selected for further concept development. On 27 June 2019, the other finalist, the Dragonfly mission, was chosen instead.[5]
Had it been selected in June 2019, it would have launched between 2024 and 2025, with a capsule delivering a sample back to Earth in 2038. The Principal Investigator is Alexander Hayes of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. CAESAR would be managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Curation of the returned sample would take place at NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, based at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The CAESAR team chose comet 67P over other cometary targets in part because the data collected by the Rosetta mission, which studied the comet from 2014 to 2016, allows the spacecraft to be designed to the conditions there, increasing the mission's chance of success.[6] The Rosetta mission also provides a vast geologic context for this mission's sample-return analysis.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
EGU 2018was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Squyres, Steven (7 November 2018). "PSW 2399 Comets and the Origin of Life". PSW Science. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Squyres, Steve (2018). CAESAR: Project Overview (PDF). 18th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group. 17–18 January 2018. Ames Research Center, California. Lunar and Planetary Institute.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Messenger 2018was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Brown, David (27 June 2019). "NASA Announces New Dragonfly Drone Mission to Explore Titan". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (19 December 2017). "Finalists in NASA's Spacecraft Sweepstakes: A Drone on Titan, and a Comet-Chaser". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 January 2018.