Abstract
A sample return mission to Mars has lately been proposed at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In the mission, we plan to capture floating Martian dust particles during the Martian atmospheric flight. In order to improve the feasibility of the Mars mission, we have carried out a study of capturing Martian dust particles using aerogel in the Martian atmospheric flight condition. At JAXA, a carbon aerogel-silica aerogel (CASA) two layered sample collector has been developed for the mission, and arcjet heating tests and light gas-gun capture simulations have been conducted to investigate characteristics of the sample collector. It was found that the superiority of the carbon aerogel against heating has been validated, and the sampling time can be longer than 10 seconds for the mission. Also, particles of montmorillonite, the primary constituent of Martian dusts, were successfully captured by the CASA sample collector in the LGG tests.
