A mission to return several kilograms of cometary nucleus material to Earth is described. The total delta-v requirement of this mission amounts to 40 km per sec. It can be produced by the combination of a launch vehicle that puts the spacecraft on its cometary transfer trajectory; an electric or ion propulsion system that enables the spacecraft to rendezvous with the comet, and to return to the Earth's solar orbit after the cometary rendezvous; a chemical propulsion system that permits the spacecraft to maneuver in the vicinity of the comet; an orbital transfer vehicle that meets the returning spacecraft in the Earth's solar orbit and takes it back into a low Earth orbit; and an Earth-return vehicle that retrieves the cometary samples to Earth. Comet Wild 2 is a suitable candidate during its 1997 perihelion passage.


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    Title :

    Comet Nucleus Sample Return Mission with Electrically Propelled Spacecraft


    Contributors:
    E. Stuhlinger (author) / H. Fechtig (author) / E. Igenbergs (author) / H. Loeb (author)

    Publication date :

    1986


    Size :

    10 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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    A comet nucleus sample return mission

    FEINGOLD, H. / HOFFMAN, S. / SOLDNER, J. | AIAA | 1984