Surface Investigations of Asteroids: Science Justification and the Need for Instrument Development

Introduction: One of NASA’s current objectives is to send humans to an asteroid. To make this goal feasible, it is critical to perform in-situ measurements to characterize these surfaces in order to understand the environment that astronauts, vehicles, and equipment will be exposed to while exploring. Currently, there is very little knowledge about the geophysical and geotechnical properties of asteroids. There is a lack of scientific data on the properties of regolith, as well as a lack of understanding of how regolith responds in its unique microgravity environment [1]. To truly understand the data from remote sensing, surface interaction is key. Characterizing the surface, the regolith, and its properties all feeds into obtaining ground truth.