Planetary Penetrators for Sample Return Missions

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06University of Washington Abstract Planetary Penetrators for Sample Return Missions Chad A. Truitt Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Robert M. Winglee Earth and Space Sciences Sample return missions offer a greater science yield when compared to missions that only employ in situ experiments or remote sensing observations, since they allow the application of more complicated technological and analytical methodologies in controlled terrestrial laboratories that are both repeatable and can be independently verified. The successful return of extraterrestrial materials over the last four decades has contributed to our understanding of the solar system, but retrieval techniques have largely depended on the use of either soft-landing, or touch-and-go procedures that result in high ΔV requirements, and return yields typically limited to a few grams of surface materials that have experienced varying degrees of alteration from space weathering. Hard-landing methods using planetary penetrators offer an alternative for sample return that significantly reduce a mission’s ΔV, increase sample yields, and allow for the collection of subsurface materials, and lessons can be drawn from previous sample return missions. The following details progress in the design, development, and testing of penetrator/sampler technology capable of surviving subsonic and low supersonic impact velocities (