Spacecraft Sample Collection

Dear Colleagues,

On 24 September 2023, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully completed a seven-year mission to return to Earth a significant sample of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Also in recent years, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) returned samples to Earth of the near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu and the Moon, respectively. These missions are just the latest examples of successful robotic planetary sampling missions that go back more than 50 years to when the former Soviet Union returned to Earth a total of several hundred grams of lunar material during the Luna program. But missions such as these are just the start. In the near-future, even more ambitious and difficult planetary sample return missions will be attempted. For instance, in September 2023, NASA released an independent review board report regarding its Mars sample return plan. This report highlighted the tremendous technical, cost and schedule challenges of such an endeavor as well as the tremendous scientific promise. 

For this Special Issue, we invite contributions that describe lessons learned from previous robotic sample return missions as well as recent technological advances to identify, collect and return samples from locations in both the inner and outer Solar System. Submission of papers that include (but are not limited to) descriptions of  mission design, trajectories, spacecraft architecture, back planetary protection, sampling techniques and hardware, spacecraft instrumentation, Earth entry systems, sample stowage and sample archiving is encouraged.

Dr. Brent J. Bos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• planetary sampling
• sampling techniques and hardware
• spacecraft instrumentation