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Mission Design Challenge

Return a Small Asteroid Sample

Saved locally on this device
Learning goals
  • Match instruments to the science goals of the challenge.
  • Balance mass, power, cost, risk, and communication throughput.
  • Explain your design tradeoffs in your own words.
Help & glossary
  • Meters update in real time so you can see the impact of each choice.
  • Errors are red; warnings are amber. You can still launch with warnings.
  • Your written explanation stays on this device.

This is an educational mission-design simulation. Scores and simplified engineering values do not represent an approved or operational NASA mission.

1. Briefing2. Platform3. Power4. Comms5. Instruments6. Timeline7. Explanation8. Results

Mission briefing

Design a spacecraft that visits a near-Earth asteroid, briefly touches its surface to collect a sample, and returns that sample to Earth in a sealed capsule.

Destination
Near-Earth asteroid
Mission type
Sample return (touch-and-go)
Environment
airless, sunlit-day

Science goals

  • Collect a surface sample.
  • Return the sample to Earth for laboratory analysis.
  • Image the surface at high resolution.

Sources