Calathus: A sample-return mission to Ceres

Gassot, Oriane; Panicucci, Paolo; Acciarini, Giacomo; Bates, HC; Caballero, Manel; Cambianica, Pamela; Dziewiecki, Maciej; Dionnet, Zelia; Enengl, Florine; Gerig, Selina-Barbara; Hessinger, Felix; Kissick, Lucy; Novak, Moritz; Pellegrino, Carmine; Pontoni, Angèle; Ribeiro, Tânia M; Riegler, Clemens; Berge, Nini; Huber, Nikolaus; Hynek, Richard; Kędziora, Bartosz; Kiss, Adam; Martin, Maurice; Montilla, Javier Navarro

Issue Date

12/01/2021

Subject Terms

Ceres
Astrobiology
Calathus
Solar system
Surface water
Space mission
Ocean worlds
Samples

Collections

Earth sciences

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Calathus_accepted_manuscript.pdf

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Abstract

Ceres, as revealed by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, is an ancient, crater-saturated body dominated by low-albedo clays. Yet, localised sites display a bright, carbonate mineralogy that may be as young as 2 Myr. The largest of these bright regions (faculae) are found in the 92 km Occator Crater, and would have formed by the eruption of alkaline brines from a subsurface reservoir of fluids. The internal structure and surface chemistry suggest that Ceres is an extant host for a number of the known prerequisites for terrestrial biota, and as such, represents an accessible insight into a potentially habitable “ocean world”. In this paper, the case and the means for a return mission to Ceres are outlined, presenting the Calathus mission to return to Earth a sample of the Occator Crater faculae for high-precision laboratory analyses. Calathus consists of an orbiter and a lander with an ascent module: the orbiter is equipped with a high-resolution camera, a thermal imager, and a radar; the lander contains a sampling arm, a camera, and an on-board gas chromatograph mass spectrometer; and the ascent module contains vessels for four cerean samples, collectively amounting to a maximum 40 g. Upon return to Earth, the samples would be characterised via high-precision analyses to understand the salt and organic composition of the Occator faculae, and from there to assess both the habitability and the evolution of a relict ocean world from the dawn of the Solar System.

Citation

Oriane Gassot, Paolo Panicucci, Giacomo Acciarini, Helena Bates, Manel Caballero, Pamela Cambianica, Maciej Dziewiecki, Zelia Dionnet, Florine Enengl, Selina-Barbara Gerig, Felix Hessinger, Lucy Kissick, Moritz Novak, Carmine Pellegrino, Angèle Pontoni, Tânia M. Ribeiro, Clemens Riegler, Nini Berge, Nikolaus Huber, Richard Hynek, Bartosz Kędziora, Adam Kiss, Maurice Martin, Javier Navarro Montilla, Calathus: A sample-return mission to Ceres, Acta Astronautica, Volume 181, 2021, Pages 112-129, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.12.050.

Type

Journal Article

Item Description

The attached document is the authors’ final accepted version of the journal article provided here with a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Creative Commons Licence. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it.’
NHM Repository

ISSN

0094-5765