| Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples (LARS) | |
| The ROSES 2021 Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples (LARS) Program Appendix C.16 | |
| Notice: This program element does not have a proposal due date. Proposals may be submitted at any time, pending certain eligibility timing issues related to resubmissions and duplicate proposal avoidance. See Appendix C.1 for further information. | |
| Special note on Hayabusa2 (H2): With the successful return of material from asteroid Ryugu in December 2020, H2 samples will soon become eligible for analysis in proposals solicited by LARS. Please refer to Appendix C.1, Section 3.5, for the new rule on when proposals may be submitted to work on H2 and other newly recovered samples. | |
| The goal of the Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples (LARS) Program is to maximize the science derived from planetary sample-return missions. Activities supported by LARS fall into two categories: (1) development of laboratory instrumentation and/or advanced techniques required for the analysis of returned samples; (2) direct analysis of samples already returned to Earth. | |
| All proposed work must be in support of the overarching goals of the Planetary Science Research Program to help ascertain the content, origin, and evolution of the Solar System and the potential for life elsewhere, consistent with the strategy for Planetary Science Exploration embodied in Science 2020-2024: A Vision for Scientific Excellence(formerly known as the Science Plan). | |
| Proposals to Develop Laboratory Instrumentation or Advanced Techniques are solicited to develop new analytical instrumentation or combinations of analytical instruments, or new components of analytical instruments, leading to significant improvements in the precision, resolution, or sensitivity of measurements compared to the existing state of the art, and to enable new types of measurements. Also solicited are proposals for the development of new analytical techniques for existing instrumentation that will push the limits of current technology. | ||
| Proposals are solicited to conduct analytical studies ofastromaterials already returned by planetary missions. | ||
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| The following completed missions have returned samples, and may be the targets of either Instrument/Method Development or Sample Analysis proposals to LARS: | ||
| Mission | Links for More Information | |
|---|---|---|
| Genesis | The Genesis Mission Page | |
| The Genesis Curation Website | ||
| Stardust | Stardust at Home (UC Berkeley) | |
| The Stardust Mission Page | ||
| The Stardust Curator's Website | ||
| Hayabusa1 | The Hayabusa Sample Library | |
| The Hayabusa Curation Website | ||
| Hayabusa2 | The Hayabusa2 Project Page | |
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| LARS also supports Method/Instrumentation Development proposals to prepare for future sample-return missions. Highest priority will be given to proposals addressing missions already selected for flight and to those which can best demonstrate the timeliness of the effort. These include: | ||
| Mission | Links for More Information | |
|---|---|---|
| OSIRIS-REx | The OSIRIS-REx Mission Page | See Section 2.2.2 of this Program Element for additional potential missions. |
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| LARS does not support work principally relevant to past lunar sample-return missions, work to study returned space-flown hardware that has been exposed to micrometeorite impacts, unless associated with one of the missions listed in Section 2.1 of this Program Element, research on astromaterials collected on Earth (e.g., meteorites, micrometeorites, cosmic dust) unless these analyses are directly in support of the analysis of currently available mission-returned samples or are needed as part of a development effort, or efforts to develop instruments for flight on planetary missions. | |
| The standard rule for use of mission data has been that unless otherwise specified, spacecraft mission data to be used in proposed work must be available in the Planetary Data System (PDS), or an equivalent, publicly accessible, archive, at least 30 days prior to the full proposal due date. For No Due Date (NoDD) programs the 30-day rule applies to the submission date of the proposal rather than the due date. The calendar of record for data released in the PDS can be found at: https://pds.nasa.gov/datasearch/subscription-service/data-release-calendar.shtml. | |
| Please refer to Section 4 of program element C.1 for a detailed list of the data and astromaterials resources and facilities available to proposers to this program element, and how to use them. | |
| Proposals submitted to this Program Element must include a Data Management Plan (see Appendix C.1, Section 3.7). The Individual Proposer's Archive Guide (IPAG) and Strategy for writing a good data management plan for a ROSES proposal are available on the PPI website. | |
| Proposals submitted to this Program Element must follow all formatting and content requirements that are described in program element C.1 and Section IV(b)ii of the ROSES Summary of Solicitation. |
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