Marco Polo (spacecraft)

Marco Polo was a proposed within the framework of the ESA Cosmic Vision program space mission that would take a sample from a near-Earth object back to Earth. Near-Earth objects are asteroids or comets that come close to the Earth. They are leftovers from the formation of the solar system. To study their properties in detail will allow us to understand the formation and evolution of our solar system.

Since it is in this project is a collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ), it was named after Marco Polo, who built one of the first Europeans good relations with Asia.

History

The project was studied from March to April 2008 by the ESA in an internal study. On the basis of this study Marco Polo was selected with five other projects from 50 applications submitted for the further development.

Between June 2008 and by the summer of 2009, three parallel industrial studies were conducted. In fall 2009, the number of projects pursued was further reduced to three ( Euclid, PLATO and Solar Orbiter ). Marco Polo was not selected.

2010 should be a cost -reduced version to be re- submitted under the name of Marco Polo -R. A decision of the Authority was taken in February 2011, and the mission will be further studied.

Scientific Objectives

The main objective of the mission was to bring a sample from a primitive near-Earth object back to Earth.

In essence, with ground-based analysis of these samples, but also through on-site examinations of the asteroid or comet, the following detailed scientific questions could be answered: