Some of these meteorites are rocks that were blasted out of the Moon by impacts, found their way to Earth, and have been confirmed as lunar in origin by comparison with the samples returned by spacecraft.
An additional aim of this experiment is to set up an experimental apparatus and establish analytical techniques that will be available for noble gas analyses of small grains (< 100 μ m) of the Itokawa asteroidal samples returned in 2010 by the Hayabusa sample return mission.
The other is the multiple fly-bys and sample return mission to an asteroid family.
However, the samples returned by Apollo missions were collected from a relatively small and geochemically restricted anomalous region of the central nearside of the Moon (Warren and Kallemeyn 1991).
Connolly et al. (2015) discussed the formation of rounded shape grains included in the samples returned by Hayabusa (e.g., Tsuchiyama et al. 2011) and argued that the Itokawa surface was in a high-energy environment possibly caused by the YORP effect to raise a continuous granular flow.
The sample-return mission alone could cost $2 billion.
We found that even the most fragile samples, chosen to be representative of a wide range of the types of materials found on the surface of asteroids that have currently been studied, can withstand impacts of the intensity experienced by a sample return capsule during direct reentry.
China intends to launch another rover mission (Chang'e 4) in 2015, followed by a sample return mission (Chang'e 5) in 2017.
Argon isotopic data is used to assess the potential of low-mass samples collected by sample return missions on planetary objects (e.g., Moon, Mars, asteroids), to reveal planetary surface processes.
In addition, Hoppers can collect samples from all over the planet, including hard to reach geographical locations, and return the samples to a central location for retrieval by a Mars Sample Return mission.
