Small bodies: planetary and life (?) precursors
(left: from W.K. Hartmann)
Marco Polo Mission artist views
The Marco Polo mission is a mission that will return a sample from a low-albedo, primitive Near Earth Asteroid (NEA). Only one low-albedo asteroid, namely the main belt asteroid (243) Mathilde, has been observed by spacecraft to date and only during a brief fly-by and with limited instrumentation.
This figure shows all the images collected by space missions during fly-bys or dedicated visits to asteroids and comets. Regarding asteroids, only the 50 km-size Mathilde has a spectral type and albedo (0.03) consistent with primitive material. However, its size (and therefore gravity) is order of magnitudes above that expected for the kilometer-size target of the Mission Marco Polo.
The Marco Polo mission will thus return fundamental and exciting science, within a mission that will excite the public during all phases, in particular during the in-situ observations and laboratory-based investigation of the returned material. Orbital observations will provide a characterization of the target necessary for sample selection and for relating laboratory samples to the asteroid population as a whole. The Marco Polo mission will return a sample providing new information on organic-rich solar-system materials and the formation of habitable planets. It will also improve our knowledge of a potentially threatening object, which is a necessary step to future hazard mitigation.