UV-photoprocessing of interstellar ice analogs: Detection of hexamethylenetetramine-based species

Wetensch. publicatieFaculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappe

Triple F - a comet nucleus sample return mission

The Triple F (Fresh From the Fridge) mission, a Comet Nucleus Sample Return, has been proposed to ESA's Cosmic Vision program. A sample return from a comet enables us to reach the ultimate goal of cometary research. Since comets are the least processed bodies in the solar system, the proposal goes far beyond cometary science topics (like the explanation of cometary activity) and delivers invaluable information about the formation of the solar system and the interstellar molecular cloud from which it formed. The proposed mission would extract three sample cores of the upper 50cm from three locations on a cometary nucleus and return them cooled to Earth for analysis in the laboratory. The simple mission concept with a touch-and-go sampling by a single spacecraft was proposed as an M-class mission in collaboration with the Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS. © The Author(s) 2008

Ice structures, patterns, and processes: A view across the ice-fields

We look ahead from the frontiers of research on ice dynamics in its broadest sense; on the structures of ice, the patterns or morphologies it may assume, and the physical and chemical processes in which it is involved. We highlight open questions in the various fields of ice research in nature; ranging from terrestrial and oceanic ice on Earth, to ice in the atmosphere, to ice on other solar system bodies and in interstellar space