Near Earth Asteroid Returned Sample Mission (NEARS)

NEARS is a small mission to be proposed for the NASA Discovery Program. It will use a modified version of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft being developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The NEARS mission will return a set of samples from a near-Earth asteroid to Earth for analysis in terrestrial laboratories. NEARS will be the first sample return from outside the Earth-Moon system and will be a pathfinder for future sample returns from other small bodies in the Solar System. NEARS will also be the first space resource assessment beyond the Moon and the first assessment of the surface physical properties of a small body. With samples from a near-Earth asteroid, our laboratory knowledge of materials from specifically identified sources will be extended beyond the Moon to Earth's next nearest neighbors. NEARS will establish the first detailed history for another body beyond the Earth and Moon and will be the decisive experiment for linking the fields of asteroid and meteorite science. The NEARS mission will use a Delta II 7925 to launch in January 2000 to the primitive (probably C-type) asteroid 4660 Nereus. Earth return occurs 4 years later. The return capsule will use Pioneer Venus heritage and will be supplied by Martin Marietta Astrospace. The pre-Phase A study of the NEARS mission was supported by the NASA Solar System Exploration Division. We are currently developing a sample acquisition device that will be suitable for NEARS. This instrument development is supported by the NASA Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program. The sampler is a pyrotechnic device that will be capable of obtaining a core sample from rock or regolith surfaces. It does not require the spacecraft to tether itself to the surface of the asteroid and does not require a manned presence. The NEARS spacecraft will carry six of these samplers, integrated with the return capsule, in a cluster called the "six-shooter". We will present the NEARS mission and spacecraft, the design and test program for the sampler, and a systems integration and packaging concept for the six-shooter.