Earth and Environmental Sciences / Research / Planetary missions

Planetary missions

We are involved in missions to space to collect samples that are used in research. We have been part of all of the recent major missions to space, including those run by NASA and the ESA. 

Extraterrestrial sample return

We undertake laboratory analysis of the solar wind, comets, asteroids and Moon rocks returned to Earth by space missions. We have worked on every sample return mission to date including:

  • Apollo, Luna and Chang’e 5 – samples returned from the Moon’s surface by the NASA Apollo crewed missions, the Soviet Union’s robotic Luna missions, and China’s Chang’e 5 mission
  • Genesis – samples of the solar wind returned by NASA’s Genesis mission
  • Hayabusa 1 and 2 – samples of asteroids returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa 1 and 2 missions
  • Stardust – samples of a comet returned by NASA’s Stardust mission
  • OSIRIS-REx – samples of a primitive asteroid returned by NASA

We are involved in meteorite recovery expeditions to collect new meteorite samples from Earth field settings. Researchers in the group are leading the first UK-led meteorite recovery mission to Antarctica.

Moon
  • Working with the European Space Agency, we will be part of the science team that delivers the PROSPECT instrument as part of a NASA Commercial Lander mission to the Moon. The lander mission will fly to the south polar region of the Moon to drill for samples of lunar soil from around 1 meter in depth. The samples will be delivered to a mass spectrometer to determine the concentration and light isotope (H, N, C, O, noble gases) geochemistry to understand the source and origin of lunar polar volatiles.
  • DIMPLE – we are international science team Co-Investigators on a payload which will undertake in situ dating of a volcanic region of the Moon. The experiment will fly on a future NASA Commercial Lander mission to the Moon.
  • Artemis 3 Geology Science Team – we have involvement in the science team who will help advise on the geology planning for when humans return to the Moon in the Artemis exploration programme.

Research expertise

We are actively involved in researching the history of our galaxy and solar system.

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Our facilities

There are a number of facilities available to our researchers and students.

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The University of Manchester