Boom Retraction Mechanism as Part of Sample Acquisition System from Remote and Hazardous Extra-Terrestrial Sites

This paper discusses the development of a mechanism as part of a comet sampling system. The mechanism, known by the acronym BRAD for Boom Retraction and Deployment, is part of a mission proposal to return a comet regolith sample to earth. The mission proposal; CORSAIR for Comet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return, was coordinated by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD as a response to the NASA 2017 New Frontiers AO or Announcement of Opportunity. BRAD functions as a means to tend and control a deployable boom that connects a sample projectile to the spacecraft.