ESA Science & Technology - MarcoPolo-R
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MarcoPolo-R was a candidate mission for the M3 launch opportunity in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme. The aim of the mission was to collect a pristine sample from a primitive near-Earth asteroid - the foreseen target was asteroid 2008 EV5 - and return it to Earth for in-depth investigation in laboratories. The sample returned by MarcoPolo-R would have given new depth to our understanding of the early Solar System and of other near-Earth asteroids. In February 2014 the PLATO mission was selected for the M3 launch opportunity.
News
News
ESA selects planet-hunting PLATO mission
19 February 2014A space-based observatory to search for planets orbiting alien stars has been selected today as ESA's third medium-class science mission. It is planned for launch by 2024.
Announcements
Announcements
Cosmic Vision M3 candidate missions presentation event
21 October 2013The five M3-candidate missions (EChO, LOFT, MarcoPolo-R, PLATO, STE-QUEST) were presented to the scientific community on 21 January 2014, in Paris, France. The presentations given at this event are available to download now.
Announcement of Opportunity for the provision of scientific payload including SGS elements for the M3 mission candidates
24 September 2012Proposals are solicited for the scientific payload, including Science Ground Segment (SGS) elements, of the M3 candidate missions EChO, LOFT, MarcoPolo-R, and STE-QUEST. The deadline for submission of proposals is 30 November 2012, 12:00 CET.
Latest Publications
Latest Publications
MarcoPolo-R Assessment Study Report (Yellow Book)
16 December 2013Reference: ESA/SRE(2013)4. This is the Assessment Study Report (also known as the Yellow Book) for MarcoPolo-R - a candidate mission for the M3 launch opportunity in Cosmic Vision.
MarcoPolo-R Preliminary Requirements Review Technical Report
18 December 2013Reference: ESA-MPR-REP-0003, Issue 1, Revision 2. MarcoPolo-R, a Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) sample return mission, is one of five candidate missions for the M3 launch opportunity. A Preliminary Requirements Review (PRR) of all candidate missions has been performed to review their status in support of the M3 selection. This document reports the...
MarcoPolo-R Science Requirements Document
19 September 2012Reference: MPR-RSSD-RS-001; Issue 1, Revision 5. This document describes the detailed scientific requirements for the MarcoPolo-R mission.
MarcoPolo-R Mission Requirements Document
17 September 2012Reference: SRE-PA/2011.076/MarcoPolo-R; Issue 3, Revision 2. The purpose of the MRD is to provide all high-level
mission-level requirements (including spacecraft and payload, launcher, ground segment and
operations) necessary to achieve the science goals detailed in MarcoPolo-R Science Requirements Document (MPR-RSSD-RS-001) for the MarcoPolo-R...
MarcoPolo-R Payload Definition Document
4 November 2011Reference: SRE-PA/2011.079; Issue 1. This document describes the proposed model payload of MarcoPolo-R, a sample return mission to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA), which is currently under assessment as a candidate mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Plan.
MarcoPolo-R CDF study - External Final Presentation
8 November 2011This is a summary of the study performed at ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) into the M-class candidate mission MarcoPolo-R.
MarcoPolo-R: proposal to ESA in response to call for medium-size missions
3 December 2010This MarcoPolo-R mission proposal was submitted in 2010 to ESA in response to the Call for medium-size (M-class) missions in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan with a launch opportunity in the period 2020-22.