Since our founding 40 years ago, The Planetary Society has provided opportunities for our members to contribute directly to innovative technology developments. This year, one of these investments paid off in a big way.
NASA and JAXA, Japan's space agency, have selected PlanetVac, a sample collection technology funded in part by Planetary Society members and donors, for a mission to the Moon and another to the Martian moon Phobos.
PlanetVac works by blowing gas into a planetary surface, stirring soil and rock up into a collection chamber. In its simplest form, PlanetVac attaches to a spacecraft’s lander leg, meaning the device is ready to work as soon as the lander touches down. The system requires as little as one moving part: a valve that opens to release the gas. This makes it the ideal technology for low-cost, reliable sample collection.
The lunar version of PlanetVac will launch in 2023 aboard a yet-to-be-selected lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which supports the agency’s plans to return humans to the lunar surface. Japan’s MMX spacecraft will launch to Phobos in 2024 and return samples from the Martian moon to Earth in 2029 using PlanetVac as one of its 2 sampling mechanisms. Learn more at planetary.org/planetvac.
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