I hope it survives the flyby.
Posted on 12/30/2003 5:02:51 PM PST by RightWhale
Spacecraft to Fly Through Tail of Comet
By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer
PASADENA, Calif. - A spacecraft is on track to fly through the tail of a comet on Friday, collecting hundreds of specks of the primitive material from which the sun, the planets and all living creatures are made, NASA said. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Stardust spacecraft is expected to pass within 186 miles of the comet Wild 2 as it catches the shimmering gas and dust cloud that envelops the dirty ball of ice and rock.
The unmanned probe should make its closest approach at 2:40 p.m. EST Friday, when the comet and probe will be 242 million miles from Earth, mission members said Tuesday at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
During the flyby, Stardust should capture hundreds if not thousands of particles of dust ripped from Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt-2) by streams of gases boiled from the comet's surface by the warming rays of the sun. NASA also expects the spacecraft to take 72 black-and-white pictures of the comet's 3.3 mile-diameter nucleus. The first of those images could be received on Earth as early as Friday afternoon.
Scientists are eager to study the particles since they represent pristine examples — preserved for 4.6 billion years by the cold of space — of the material that coalesced to form our solar system and everything in it. Stardust should sweep up much less than a thimbleful of the material. The scientists believe the dust contains many of the organic compounds necessary for life. Comets that pelted the Earth long ago could have delivered those molecules. "They are museums that contain the building blocks of our solar system, our planet and from which even ourselves were formed," said Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer and the $200 million mission's main scientist.
If successful, Stardust should become only the third spacecraft to capture a close-up view of the dark heart of a comet, normally obscured by a bright veil of dust and gas. Stardust has protective bumpers designed to shield the unmanned spacecraft as it plows through the comet's veil, or coma, at 13,650 mph. A tennis racket-shaped mitt will snag particles during the flyby.
The mitt has already swept up bits of interstellar dust since the spacecraft's 1999 launch. In 2006, Stardust will jettison a canister containing the mitt during a flyby of Earth. The canister and its extraterrestrial cargo should plummet down on Utah, and scientists then hope to analyze the particles; Stardust will continue orbiting the sun. Wild 2 is named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild, who discovered the comet in 1978.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html
Here's some more about aerogel.
It is 99.8% Air
Provides 39 times more insulating than the best fiberglass insulation
Is 1,000 times less dense than glass
Was used on the Mars Pathfinder rover
It's probably 99.8% Space rather than Air when used on spacecraft.
I hope it survives the flyby.
I've had the same sort of luck ever since.
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