MarcoPolo-2D overview

The MarcoPolo-2D is an ambitious sample return mission to the D-type Near Earth Asteroid (2001) SG286 that has been proposed to the ESA Cosmic Vision M4 launch opportunity.  D-type asteroids are the most abundant asteroids beyond the Main Belt, and current models of solar system formation indicate that they may have formed out towards the Kuiper Belt. Their very dark surfaces and spectra may indicate that they are particularly organic and volatile-rich and contain abundant anhydrous silicates. Therefore, D-type asteroids may be intermediate between primitive asteroids that populate the Main Asteroid Belt and comets and are generally considered the most primitive rocky bodies available in the solar system.

Although originating from the outer parts of the solar system, orbital perturbations provide a continuous input of D-types into the Near Earth Asteroid population, where they can be more readily accessed by spacecraft. 

Pristine material returned from a D-type asteroid will allow us to explore processes occurring at the very birth of the solar system, as it will contain a wealth of the earliest formed grains. The abundant organic compounds present offer the best opportunity to explore the origin of potentially a key ingredient to the origin of Life on Earth, delivered shortly after our planet formed by primitive asteroids and comets. The isotopic signature of the water and other volatiles that were present in D-type asteroids can also be investigated with the returned sample, in order to explore a major, but as yet poorly understood, possible source of the Earth's oceans. 

MarcoPolo-2D is proposed as joint mission with the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA).  The mission comprises two spacecraft, a large orbiter spacecraft provided by CNSA that will undertake the main remote sensing activities and a small, agile spacecraft provided by ESA that will collect the sample from the asteroid surface and return it to Earth.  The spacecraft will also each deploy a small independent lander, to explore the surface composition and internal structure of the body.  MarcoPolo-2D will provide by far the most comprehensive characterisation of a small primitive body through the combined characterisation by orbiter, landers and return of a large pristine sample.  The Near Earth Asteroids targeted by previous and current sample return missions have all originated from the Main Belt - MarcoPolo-2D will return material from a previously un-sampled region of the solar system.

We encourage you to register your support for MarcoPolo-2D mission using the registration form in the Community pages.