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STARDUST: The launch of the STARDUST spacecraft is scheduled for February 6, 1999.
Stardust will fly through the dust atmosphere of comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004, image
the icy cometary nucleus, collect dust samples, and return these samples to Earth in
January 2006. As well as capturing dust particles during the comet fly through, the low
density (aerogel) dust collectors will trap some of the dust particles that are present in
interplanetary space, and these too will be brought back to Earth for laboratory analyses.
Stardust Science Instruments:
Imager, impact dust mass spectrometer, aerogel dust sample collector
The Stardust spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics under contract to the
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The principal investigator is Dr. Don Brownlee,
University of Washington, and the project management is located at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.
Look here for additional information on the STARDUST mission:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov
[Image of Stardust spacecraft near comet]
[Illustration of Peter Tsou and aerogel sample]
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