Marco Polo (spacecraft)

Marco Polo was a proposed space mission concept studied between 2005 and 2015 that would return a sample of material to Earth from the surface of a Near Earth asteroid (NEA) for detailed study in laboratories. It was first proposed to the European Space Agency in collaboration with the Japan aerospace exploration agency JAXA. The concept was rejected four times between 2007 and 2015 for the Cosmic Vision programme "M" medium-class missions.

Overview

Marco Polo was a mission concept aimed at visiting a small asteroid and returning a sample to Earth for analysis in laboratory. The concept was initially studied by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency JAXA, that referred to it as Hayabusa Mk2. Marco Polo was first rejected in June 2007 for the Cosmic Vision program, but was selected for further assessment studies in November 2007.

The in-situ investigation and sample analysis would allow to improve knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of a small Near-Earth object (NEO) which is believed to have kept the original composition of the solar nebula in which planets formed. Thus, it would provide some constraints to the models of planet formation and some information on how life ingredients may have been brought to Earth. Information on the physical structure would help defining efficient mitigation strategies against a potential threatening object.

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 invoke an exogenous delivery of organic compounds to the early Earth.