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OATS-UNI/TS SEMINAR
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Speaker: Elisabetta Dotto (INAF - OAMP)

Title: A sample return mission to a primitive Near Earth Asteroid: the ESA Cosmic Vision M3 mission MarcoPolo-R
Date: Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Time: 15:00
Venue: Villa Bazzoni

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Abstract: Small bodies, as primitive leftover building blocks of the solar system formation process, offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago. Current exobiological scenarios for the origin of life on Earth invoke an exogenous delivery of organic matter: primitive bodies could have brought these complex organic molecules capable of triggering the pre-biotic synthesis of biochemical compounds on the early Earth. On the basis of these considerations the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) population is an important target both for ground based and space investigation. MarcoPolo-R is a sample return mission to a Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA), selected by ESA as part of the Cosmic Vision M3 programme, for an assessment study with launch in 2020-2022. MarcoPolo-R - aimed to visit a primitive NEA, scientifically characterize it, and bring samples back to the Earth - will allow us to study the most primitive materials available to investigate early solar system formation processes. Moreover, MarcoPolo-R will provide a sample from a known target with known geological context. This unaltered material will be analysed in ground-based laboratories, obtaining measurements that cannot be performed from a robotic spacecraft (e.g. dating the major events in the history of a sample).
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Contact: Paolo Di Marcantonio (INAF - OAT)