"Most of the key science priorities of the planetary science decadal survey rely on observations that involve sampling or close proximity observations of a variety of bodies. These observations address chemistry responsive to origin science and habitability as well as observational strategies for deep interior probing via internal or field geophysics. Increased interest in the reconnaissance of small bodies for Human exploration, planetary defense, and in situ resources calls for in situ chemistry and geophysics measurements as well as approaches to probe small body soil properties for geotechnical assessment.
Major progress in the miniaturization of instruments and subsystems is opening the door to novel architectures for in situ observations and multi-site field measurements. High science return per dollar architectures may be approached via scalable and modular platforms to enable a range of science objectives. Following the footsteps of Earth-observing Cubesats, a number of recent concepts have been exploring the potential for Cubesats to return science grade observations at a variety of bodies, either as independent or as secondary platforms. Concepts so far cover multisite magnetic and gravity field sampling, atmospheric probing, high-resolution imaging, and strategic knowledge gap specific packages (imaging, dosimeter, dust analyzer, etc.)
Low cost landers are also gaining momentum, starting with the MASCOT lander developed by the German space agency, the Hedgehog lander developed by Stanford and JPL under NASA’s Center Innovation Fund, minimalistic lander concepts developed at JPL, as well as penetrators and biology inspired concepts.
Key to the exploration with small platforms is the miniaturization of science grade instruments that retain high performance despite highly constrained resources and short lifetimes. Small instruments for a variety of applications are gaining maturity, especially instrumentation for geophysical probing. The development of techniques for sampling material in low gravity environment, such as laser-excited spectrometry decreases the need for mechanically heavy and power intensive sampling techniques.
Algorithms for onboard data processing and triage allow increasing the science value per bit and can help select observation and sampling sites when conditions limit the pace of ground involvement.
This presentation will review the state of the art in small instruments and science operations in the context of reconnaissance mission concepts for the Human exploration of near earth asteroids and Mars’ moons and environment.
Acknowledgements: Part of this work is being developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA. The Hedgehog project is supported by NASA’s Center Innovation Fund."