NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing the PRAXIS mission, a concept for autonomously exploring and sampling planetary rings. The mission aims to collect ring particles to better understand their structure and origins.
The proposed PRAXIS (Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling) mission, spearheaded by Marco Quadrelli of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, seeks to achieve a first: physically touching and collecting material from planetary rings. Currently, humanity has never directly sampled the particles that compose these structures.
The primary goal of PRAXIS is to transform our understanding of ring systems. According to NASA, sampling rings will provide insights into the structure and origins not only of Saturn’s prominent rings, but also those of Uranus, Neptune, and even smaller bodies like Centaurs Chariklo and Chiron. The mission could potentially shed light on the formation of these rings and their evolution over time.
The source does not specify a timeline or budget for the PRAXIS mission; it is currently presented as a concept under development.
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