Star dust set to return to Earth
15 January 2006
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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It is less than one day of space travel that separates Earth and history's first comet sample return mission. The Stardust spacecraft will cross the moon's orbit as the craft makes its way toward Earth. The final 400,000 kilometers (249,000 miles) of the mission to return a capsule containing cometary particles to Earth will take just 16 hours and 27 minutes. It took the Apollo astronauts about three days to make the same journey. Stardust Project Manager Tom Duxbury described the final leg as being like ballet. He explained that "Our entire flight and recovery team will be watching this final leg of our flight with tremendous expectation as we implement a precise celestial ballet in delivering our capsule to Earth," The mission has traveled some 4.5 billion kilometers (2.88 billion miles) over its seven year round-trip odyssey out to the comet Comet P/Wild 2 was in quest of cometary and interstellar dust particles. Scientists believe these particles will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system. |
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Related Links
Original press release from JPL
Nature
& Science News
ClearlyExplained.com