In the 1970's the Apollo mission returned to Earth the first solid- extraterrestrial materials from the lunar surface. This decade sees the next generation sample return missions that will collect exotic samples from the Sun, a comet and an asteroid. The IGPP is currently preparing for the return of Stardust spacecraft.

The Stardust mission launched in February 1999 is the first US "solid matter" sample return mission since Apollo 17 in 1973. The primary purpose of Stardust is to collect a sample of comet Wild-2 and return it to earth. A secondary purpose is to collect samples of contemporary interstellar dust, detected by the Ulysses and Galileo spacecraft, moving through the solar system in a dust stream parallel to the flow of the interstellar gas. Aerogel collectors on Stardust have already been deployed for interstellar dust collection and the spacecraft is scheduled to intercept comet Wild-2 in early 2004. The samples will be returned to Earth in early 2006.

IGPP personnel under the direction of John Bradley are exploring particle extraction and analysis techniques that will maximize the scientific return of these unique particles. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a number of highly specialized analytical instruments including the 3 MeV Nuclear Microprobe in the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry that allows in situ characterization of the captured particles before they have even been extracted from the aerogel.

2008-05-15 | UCRL-MI-120676-REV-1