2D Collaboration

MarcoPolo-2D is proposed as joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), building on the current collaboration on an S-Class mission.  The mission comprises two spacecraft, a large orbiter spacecraft provided by CNSA that will undertake the main remote sensing activities and a small, agile spacecraft provided by ESA that will collect the sample from the asteroid surface and return it to Earth.  The spacecraft will also each deploy a small independent lander, to explore the surface composition and internal structure of the body.

The figure below shows an outline of the mission and the main mission elements that each agency is proposed to provide.  European elements in blue, Chinese elements in orange.  Payload is shared between Europe and China.