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Stardust Probe Enters Comet's Tail Tomorrow

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday January 1, 2004 @08:06AM from the she's-breakin'-up-cap'n dept.

Tortured Potato writes "NASA's Stardust probe is about to pass through the tail of Comet Wild 2 at 11:40am PST, January 2nd. If all goes well, the probe will return the material to earth for research in 2006-- the first extraterrestrial material captured from outside the moon's orbit."

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Re:Comet Vapor? by James+A.+C.+Joyce · 2004-01-01 08:10 · Score: 3, Informative

It will allows us to better study the properties of intersolar and pansolar materials in high-velocity space bodies. We'll be able to gain insights into the likely composition of planets which are too far away to analyse directly, and if this works we can confirm whether or not it is actually a 'vapor' trail or some other substance. There are other, lesser implications for space travel also, but that's about the gist of it.

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interesting by alex_ant · 2004-01-01 08:43 · Score: 3, Informative

I was on a NASA committee involved in the predesign stages of the Stardust probe (we weren't designing it ourselves, rather we were consulting with one of the teams at the JPL who were) and this comet dust was one of our main points of focus. You'd think of dust as about the most innocuous stuff there is, but it was quite a challenge designing all the intricate mechanisms on the craft to be resistant to it - at the speed it travels, it can be like sandpaper on all the components.