Hayabusa2 Sample Catcher and Container: Metal-Seal System for Vacuum Encapsulation of Returned Samples with Volatiles and Organic Compounds Recovered from C-Type Asteroid Ryugu

Karouji

et al. 2018

Earth Planets Space

Self Cite

The Hayabusa2 mission aims to obtain pristine samples from a near-Earth carbonaceous-type (C-type) asteroid, 162173 Ryugu, and return them to Earth. One of the scientific goals of the mission is to understand the origin and evolution of organic materials through the interactions between water and minerals in the early solar system. Thus, organic materials are the main focus of the analysis on the returned samples. The analysis of extraterrestrial organic materials, however, requires great care to avoid the introduction of terrestrial contaminants and artefacts to the samples. To investigate the potential for contamination, we performed an assessment through the amino acid analysis of witness coupons that were exposed in a clean chamber in an Institute of Space and Astronautical Science/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA) curation room. In the study, the witness coupons were collected at different time periods, between 1 day and 1 month, to examine the accumulation rates of the contaminants. Seven common terrestrial amino acids (glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, proline, aspartic acid and glutamic acid) were detected on the witness coupons. Among them, glycine was found to be most abundant, with the highest concentration of 10 pmol/cm 2 detected on the day 7 witness coupon. Alanine was found in the next highest concentration, approximately one-third that of glycine. A time-dependent profile in terms of the increasing trend observed in the concentration from days 1 to 7 was found. The contaminants were considered to have multiple origins. Our results are similar to those reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Johnson Space Center (NASA/JSC) OSIRIS-REx team, which indicates that the quality control against terrestrial contaminants in our facility is at the same quantitative level as in their facility. The knowledge obtained on the contaminants in this study will provide important information for the curation procedure of the Hayabusa2-returned samples.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amino acids on witness coupons collected from the ISAS/JAXA curation facility for the assessment and quality control of the Hayabusa2 sampling procedure

Sugahara

Karouji

et al. 2018

Earth Planets Space

Self Cite

“…The spacecraft successfully performed two sampling operations on the Ryugu surface materials, which will be returned to Earth in late 2020. The basic concept of the Hayabusa2 sampling system has been described previously (e.g., Tachibana et al 2014;Sawada et al 2017;Okazaki et al 2017). To collect enough sample (~ 100 mg) from the Ryugu surface, each 5 g of tantalum (Ta) projectile was used at the time of touch-down during the sampling operation (Sawada et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic concept of the Hayabusa2 sampling system has been described previously (e.g., Tachibana et al 2014;Sawada et al 2017;Okazaki et al 2017). To collect enough sample (~ 100 mg) from the Ryugu surface, each 5 g of tantalum (Ta) projectile was used at the time of touch-down during the sampling operation (Sawada et al 2017). The projectile shooting operation has three steps: (1) explosion in the explosive chamber; (2) acceleration of the projectile by the combustion gas within the closed sabot system; and (3) projectile shooting at ~ 300 m s −1 after separation from the sabot using combustion gas stored in the explosive chamber (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical assessment of the explosive chamber in the projector system of Hayabusa2 for asteroid sampling

Yamada

Okamoto

et al. 2020

Earth Planets Space

Self Cite

We report a chemical assessment of the explosive chamber in the projector system used during the sampling operation of the Hayabusa2 project at the surface of the C-type asteroid Ryugu. Although the explosion process was designed as a closed system, volatile combustion gases and semivolatile organics were produced together with quenched carbonaceous product. The chemical compositions of the gases, organics, and inorganics were investigated in the screening analysis. A solid-phase microextraction technique and thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis revealed that aliphatic (< C 20 n-alkanes) and aromatic (< pyrene) hydrocarbons were produced in the closed chamber system. The aromatic ring compositions of the latter showed a semilogarithmic decrease: one ring > two rings > three rings > four rings, resulting in abiogenic molecular patterns. The most intense inorganic fingerprints were due to potassium (K +) and chloride (Cl-) ions derived from the initial KTB explosive and RK ignition charge. We discuss quality control and quality assurance issues applicable to future sample processes during the Hayabusa2 project.

“…The spacecraft successfully performed two sampling operations on the Ryugu surface materials, which will be returned to Earth in late 2020. The basic concept of the Hayabusa2 sampling system has been described previously (e.g., Tachibana et al, 2014;Sawada et al, 2017;Okazaki et al, 2017). To collect enough sample (~100 mg) from the Ryugu surface, each 5-g Ta projectile was used at the time of touch-down during the sampling operation (Sawada et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical assessment of the explosive chamber in the projector system of Hayabusa2 for asteroid sampling

Yamada

Okamoto

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

We report a chemical assessment of the explosive chamber in the projector system used during the sampling operation of the Hayabusa2 project at the surface of the C-type asteroid Ryugu. Although the explosion process was designed as a closed system (cf. Sawada et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2017), volatile combustion gases and semivolatile organics were produced together with quenched carbonaceous product. The chemical compositions of the gases, organics, and inorganics were investigated in the screening analysis. A solid-phase microextraction technique and thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis revealed that aliphatic (<C20 n-alkanes) and aromatic (<pyrene) hydrocarbons were produced in the closed chamber system. The aromatic ring compositions of the latter showed a semilogarithmic decrease: one ring > two rings > three rings > four rings, resulting in abiogenic molecular patterns. The most intense inorganic fingerprints were due to potassium (K+) and chloride (Cl–) ions derived from the initial KTB explosive and RK ignition charge. We discuss quality control and quality assurance issues applicable to future sample processes during the Hayabusa2 project.