Abstract Doppler and ranging measurements using the radio signal of the GIOTTO spacecraft were taken before, during, and after the encounter with Comet Halley on March 1986. The spacecraft velocity was found to decrease by a total of 23.3 cm s−1 due to impacting gas and (primarily) dust in the cometary atmosphere. A preliminary dust production rate is found to be consistent with this deceleration. Power spectra of the carrier phase fluctuations reveal an increase in level and a flattening of the spectrum just prior to encounter, presumably associated with the enhanced dust impact rate. Finally, simulated Doppler time profiles are computed using the radial dependence of plasma density observed by the GIOTTO investigations. It is shown that the cometary electron content profile would have been clearly seen if a dual-frequency downlink radio configuration had been available at encounter.
Preliminary results of the Giotto radio science experiment
Advances in Space Research ; 5 , 12 ; 201-209
1985-01-01
9 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Measurement technique for the Giotto radio science experiment
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