StardustStardust

Launch: February 1999

Arrive at Comet Wild-2: January 2004

Return to Earth: January 2006 Images courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

Stardust is a part of NASA’s Discovery Program of low-cost, highly-focused science missions, and was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Operations in Denver, CO.

Where is Stardust Now?

Stardust is on a flight path that delivered it to Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2“) on January 2, 2004. The spacecraft gathered particles flying off the nucleus of the comet.

STARDUST SPACECRAFT

Stardust is on a flight path that delivered it to Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2“) on January 2, 2004. The spacecraft gathered particles flying off the nucleus of the comet.

Stardust is also attempting to gather samples from a stream of interstellar dust that flows through the Solar System.

STARDUST SPACECRAFT

Stardust is on a flight path that delivered it to Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2“) on January 2, 2004. The spacecraft gathered particles flying off the nucleus of the comet.

Stardust is also attempting to gather samples from a stream of interstellar dust that flows through the Solar System.

Captured in a glass foam called Aerogel, the comet and interstellar dust samples will be enclosed in a clamshell-like capsule that will be dropped off for reentry into Earth's atmosphere in January 2006.

STARDUST SPACECRAFT

Stardust is on a flight path that delivered it to Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2“) on January 2, 2004. The spacecraft gathered particles flying off the nucleus of the comet.

Stardust is also attempting to gather samples from a stream of interstellar dust that flows through the Solar System.

Captured in a glass foam called Aerogel, the comet and interstellar dust samples will be enclosed in a clamshell-like capsule that will be dropped off for reentry into Earth's atmosphere in January 2006.

Equipped with parachutes, the capsule will float to a pre-selected spot in the Utah desert, where it will be retrieved and its contents delivered to scientists for detailed analysis.

STARDUST SPACECRAFT

NASA's Stardust spacecraft was shot into the sky atop a Delta II rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station at 4:04:15 p.m. EST on February 7, 1999 to become the first U.S. mission destined for a comet, and the first-ever spacecraft sent to bring a sample of a comet back to Earth.

DELTA ROCKET

SOLID ROCKET MOTORS BEING JETTISIONED

A few seconds later, the Delta's second stage ignited. After the second-stage ignition, the fairing or nose-cone enclosure around the Stardust spacecraft was jettisoned.

Sixty-six seconds after liftoff, the four solid rocket motors on the Delta rocket were discarded and the first stage continued to burn until it shut down and fell away.

NAVIGATION CAMERA

The Navigation Camera (NC) is used to optically navigate the Stardust spacecraft upon approach to the comet, keeping it out of danger. It also serves as an imaging camera that has collected 72 high-resolution images for scientific study.

Composite Image of Comet Wild-2

This composite image was taken by the Navigation Camera during the Jan 2, 2004 flyby of Comet Wild-2.

The image shows an intensely active surface, jetting dust and gas streams into space and leaving a trail millions of kilometers long.

Cometary And Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA)

The CIDA instrument intercepts dust and performs real-time compositional analysis for transmission back to Earth.

The DFMI is a highly sensitive instrument designed to detect particles as small as a few microns. Two separate acoustic impact sensors monitor for strikes by the relatively rare, but dangerous larger particles.

The Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI)

ARTIST’S CONCEPTION OF STARDUST ENCOUNTER WITH COMET WILD-2

Where is Wild-2 Now?

ARTIST’S CONCEPTION OF STARDUST ENCOUNTER WITH COMET WILD-2

Where is Wild-2 Now?

Current data indicates Stardust flew through sheets of cometary particles that jostled the spacecraft and that on at least 10 occasions the first layer of its 3-layer shielding was breached.

The primary objective of the Stardust mission is to capture both cometary samples and interstellar dust.

Example of Particles Captured in Aerogel

The primary objective of the Stardust mission is to capture both cometary samples and interstellar dust.

Stardust scooped up the cometary particles, impacting at 6.1 kilometers per second (about six times the speed of a rifle bullet).

Example of Particles Captured in Aerogel

The primary objective of the Stardust mission is to capture both cometary samples and interstellar dust.

Stardust scooped up the cometary particles, impacting at 6.1 kilometers per second (about six times the speed of a rifle bullet).

To collect particles without damaging them, Stardust uses an extraordinary substance called Aerogel.

Example of Particles Captured in Aerogel

Aerogel Quick Facts:

•It is 99.8% Air.•It is 39 times more insulating than fiberglass.•Aerogel is 1,000 times less dense than glass.

Aerogel Foam

Aerogel Foam Dust Collector

The Sample Canister is designed to hold and protect the dust particles collected during the Stardust flight.

One side of the collector faces towards the particles in Comet Wild-2, while the reverse will be turned to face the streams of interstellar dust encountered during its journey.

Aerogel foam

In flight the Aeroshield on the Sample Canister opens like a clamshell, allowing the Aerogel Dust Collector Grid to encounter cometary and interstellar dust.

It then folds it inside to secure the samples for the flight back to Earth in January 2006.

Collecting particles

Stored away

Sample Canister

SAMPLE RETURN CAPSULE

The Drop Test of the Structural Thermal Model Sample Return Capsule (SRC) was successfully completed February 5, 1998.

The drop, from a balloon gondola, began at about 13,000 feet then the barometric switches triggered the main parachute on-cue at 10,000 ft.

Comet Wild-2 is relatively new to our solar system. It did not pass close to Earth until 1974, when the power of Jupiter's gravity changed its orbit.

Because it has made only five trips around the Sun, its composition has not been altered much from its original condition. It still has most of its dust and gases and it is in relatively pristine condition.

Comets may hold the key to understanding the early development of the Solar System.

CIDA is a mass spectrometer, which determines the size of ions by comparing differences in their flight times. When a dust particle hits the target of the instrument, an electrostatic grid extracts ions from it.

The extracted ions move through the instrument, are bounced off a reflector, then read by a detector. Heavier ions take more time to travel through the instrument than lighter ones, so the flight times of the ions are used to calculate their mass.

The collection and return of dust from Comet Wild-2 by the Stardust spacecraft promises to connect a range of scientific disciplines related to the origin and evolution of stars, the solar system, and interstellar matter.

Astrobiology will especially benefit because of the roles that comets, asteroids, and dust might play in transporting "biogenic elements" and compounds to Earth-like planets residing in stellar habitable zones.