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This paper presents a global overview of current, planned and proposed sample missions. At present, missions are in progress to return samples from asteroids, comets and the interstellar medium. More missions are planned to Mars and the asteroids. Future sample return missions include more targets including Europa, Mercury and Venus. This review identifies the need for developing a coordinated international system for the handling and safety certification of returned samples. Such a system will provide added assurance to the public that all the participants in this new exploration arena have thought through the technical challenges and reached agreement on how to proceed. All these future returned sample missions hold relevance to the NASA Astrobiology program because of the potential to shed light on the origins of life, or even to return samples of biological interest.

This paper presents a preliminary modeling method, Habitat Multivariate Design Model (HMVDM), to estimate the volume, size, shape, and configuration required for the design of a space habitat. The specific habitat used for this analysis is the “Habot” mobile lunar base concept. The HMVDM methodology begins with values for mass and volume from quantitative summation tools such as the NASA Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) Crew Accommodations Guide. From these tools, it derives a more detailed analysis of mass and particularly of volume. The estimated volume is input into the model, written as a spreadsheet-based analytical modeling tool. In this pilot study, the diameter of a cylindrical module serves as the single independent variable.