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" The Curiosity rover is like a rolling science lab, using its suite of onboard instruments to analyze the samples of martian soil and rock it scoops. But as much as scientists learn from robotic explorers, they could learn much more if they could get their hands on extraterrestrial material. Robert Winglee, the chair of the department of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, says that sample retrieval missions\u2014those that bring materials from other astronomical bodies back to Earth\u2014have been few and far between, typically because of the enormous cost. A mission must land on an alien surface, take the sample, and take off again. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not that the technology isn&amp;#039;t there,&amp;quot; Winglee says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s that the cost is quite prohibitive.&amp;quot; But Winglee and his students think they have a system that could slash the cost of sample retrieval by cutting landing out of the equation.  Winglee&amp;#039;s team is working on the design of a spacecraft that could sail past a planet, moon, or asteroid. While never quite reaching orbit, it would drop a sample retriever, which would be tethered to the spacecraft like a boat anchor, down to the surface. With the material gathered, the spacecraft would zip the line right back up before returning the whole mission home.  The Washington researchers must clear plenty of hurdles to prove that this concept is even feasible. The biggest one right now: Finding a super-durable material that could survive a high-velocity impact on an otherworldly body. And some of the inspiration is coming from the burgeoning private space industry. &amp;quot;I noticed that several components were actually surviving the crashes into the ground, even on the big rockets. They&amp;#039;re actually gaining a lot of expertise on how to crash rockets, and kinetic energy on orbital systems is very high,&amp;quot; Winglee said. &amp;quot;If you could develop a system that could survive a high-velocity impact, it would be a major advance for space exploration. That&amp;#039;s how the sample-return mission came to life: using the expertise at crashing things into the ground, to use that orbital kinetic energy for sample-return collection.&amp;quot;  (a) CAD drawing of the proposed spacecraft, (b) movement of one of the penetrator into its lowering position with the attached on the tether, (c) lowering of the penetrator with the tether and (d) return of the sample by the tether to the spacecraft where is can be stored in its initial position. The material for Winglee&amp;#039;s idea would need a few crucial properties. It needs to maintain structural integrity while absorbing the kinetic energy gained from the drop (it might also require a way to slow itself down to reduce that kinetic energy). While many missions use Hexcel, a honeycomb-structured aluminum material with built-in give, the team has found it insufficient to survive the high-speed collision. It would need a &amp;quot;much higher strength to weight ratio,&amp;quot; according to the research paper submitted to the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, a program that searches for the next generation of ideas in space exploration. To reinforce the collapsible aluminum material, they&amp;#039;re looking at a variety of foam epoxies that can help the material bounce back from a collision.  Small ports in the nose cone trap samples, which collect in the center of the ports. Getting the samples back to the craft is just a matter of pulling a tether back up, accomplished through a combination of the speed of the craft itself pulling on the tether, some thruster support, and a high-tension cable that reels it in, not unlike a fishing pole. Winglee eventually wants to incorporate onboard electronics to do other analysis, including seismic measurements and preliminary analysis, and multiple samplers might be deployed in future missions. And because the craft isn&amp;#039;t going into orbit, it has the momentum it needs to return home once the samplers are returned, saving more on fuel costs. &amp;quot;The main point is to do something simple first,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;and if we can do something simple we can go to the more complicated systems.&amp;quot; The researchers have taken their tests from their original proving grounds\u2014the soft, dry lake bed of Black Rock, Nev.\u2014and are moving on to China Beach, where they&amp;#039;ll encounter harder, volcanic types of soil, similar in composition to what might be encountered on an asteroid. If their projectiles survive the impacts there, Winglee anticipates that the technology could be launched within a decade. &amp;quot;I think it&amp;#039;s make it or break it,&amp;quot; Winglee said. &amp;quot;We would like to demonstrate how to make a Mach 2 impact into the hard ground, which would be an amazing accomplishment as you might imagine.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a9654/cosmic-concept-going-fishing-on-other-planets-16146774/>