Calathus Mission
Calathus is a proposed student-designed Ceres sample-return mission, that would consist of an orbiter and a lander with an ascent module. The orbiter would be equipped with a camera, a thermal imager, and a radar; the lander will have a sampling arm, a camera, and a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. Mission objective is to return maximum 40 grams (1.4 oz) of Ceresian soil.[1] The mission was designed and proposed in 2018 with support of ESA.[2]
Spacecraft should take samples from Occator Crater,[2] that was studied and photographed by NASA's Dawn. The objectives are:[2]
- to understand whether Ceres contains the ingredients for life
- to understand where Ceres was formed
- to understand whether asteroids like Ceres were responsible for delivering water and organics to Earth
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