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The Apollo program not only orbited the Moon and landed the first humans on the lunar surface but it also returned samples.
The first Apollo lander, Apollo 11, touched down on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walked on its surface and collected samples while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command spacecraft. Five further missions also landed astronauts on the Moon who collected further samples. Apollo 17, which completed its mission in December 1972, was the last time any human has landed on another celestial body but it wasn’t the last time samples have been returned from space. Read on to learn more about the Genesis, Stardust, and Hayabusa missions. Soon, the OSIRIS-REx mission will become one of the few missions to return extraterrestrial samples to Earth.
Science highlights from the Apollo mission samples were the revelation that a magma-ocean may have existed at one stage during the Moon's history, and the development of the Giant-Impact Hypothesis for the origin of the Earth and Moon.
To read more about the Apollo missions use the links below:
The Soviet Union also returned samples from the Moon via the Luna Program - click here to read more about it.
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Genesis was a NASA sample return mission, it consisted of a spacecraft which collected a sample of solar wind and returned it to Earth for analysis. Genesis was not only the first NASA sample return mission to return material to Earth since the Apollo Program, but it was also the first to return material from beyond the orbit of the Moon. Genesis was launched on August 8, 2001, and returned to earth only 3 years later. However, due to a design flaw its drogue parachute was never deployed and it crash-landed in the Utah desert on September 8, 2004. The crash shattered and contaminated many of the sample collectors, but scientists diligently worked to separate shards from each of the different collectors and many have since been analyzed.
Genesis data yielded exciting data revealing the chemical and isotopic composition of the Sun.
To read more about the Genesis mission use the links below:
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Stardust
Stardust is a NASA sample return mission/robotic space probe that launched on February 7, 1999 primarily to collect samples from the coma of comet Wild 2. Stardust returned its sample capsule to Earth on late night on January 15, 2006. Like Genesis, Stardust samples landed in the Utah desert. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will use a Stardust-type sample return capsule which will also land in the Utah desert.
Scientific highlights from Stardust included convincing evidence for aqueous activity on comets which were previously thought to be reservoirs of pristine, unaltered material.
To read more about the Stardust mission use the links below:
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Hayabusa
Hayabusa was a robotic sample-return spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Its primary mission was to return a sample from a near-Earth asteroid, 25143 Itokawa, to Earth for further analysis.
Hayabusa (formerly known as MUSES-C; Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft C), was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in September 2005. Hayabusa studied Itokawa's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history before attempting to land on the asteroid two months later in November 2005. After several technical difficulties, Hayabusa was able to collect samples in the form of tiny grains from Itokawa’s surface. These grains were returned to Earth by the spacecraft on 13 June 2010.
Because Hayabusa returned samples that were large enough for analysis, scientists were able to link the composition of the meteorite-like samples to a known asteroid type.
To read more about the Hayabusa mission use the links below:
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