Calathus Mission

Calathus is a proposed student-designed Ceres sample-return mission, that would consist of an orbiter and a lander with an ascent module. The orbiter would be equipped with a camera, a thermal imager, and a radar; the lander will have a sampling arm, a camera, and a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. Mission objective is to return maximum 40 grams (1.4 oz) of Ceresian soil.^[1] The mission was designed and proposed in 2018 with support of ESA.^[2]

Occator Crater on Ceres

Spacecraft should take samples from Occator Crater,^[2] that was studied and photographed by NASA's Dawn. The objectives are:^[2]

• to understand whether Ceres contains the ingredients for life
• to understand where Ceres was formed
• to understand whether asteroids like Ceres were responsible for delivering water and organics to Earth

Further reading

• "The Calathus Mission" (PDF). Alpbach Summer School.
• "SAMPLE RETURN FROM A RELIC OCEAN WORLD: THE CALATHUS MISSION TO OCCATOR CRATER, CERES" (PDF). 51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2020). 2021.