Samples from space.
Agencies send out space missions to observe space phenomena and collect space debris. The extra-terrestrial material returned to Earth provides unparalleled insights into the history of our solar system. SSTC scientists have worked on material recovered by every sample return mission[1] of the modern era. Some of these samples are from the following missions:
- The Moon
- NASA’s Apollo
- USSR’s Luna
- CNSA’s Chang’e 5 and 6
- Asteroids
- JAXA’s Hayabusa and Hayabusa II
- NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex
- Cometary missions
- NASA’s STARDUST
SSTC researchers have access to the world-class facilities of the John de Laeter Centre (JsLC). The JdLC is a core research facility for characterisation instrumentation[2] at Curtin University. Characterisation instrumentation allows scientists the ability to define the character of objects through analysis of properties via various techniques. These techniques allow for investigation of single grain particles as small as <100 micrometres across. Scientists use methods like:
The SSTC researchers are nowhere near finished. There are Mission Science Team members on the planned mission JAXA’s MMX to the Martian moon Phobos. The future is just the beginning!
[1] A sample return mission is a mission that collects samples from outer-space and returns it to Earth for analysis.
[2] This is instrumentation designed to characterise or define geological samples from either Earth or outer space.
