The plan to use an Earth gravity-assist maneuver to redirect the Giotto spacecraft toward Comet Grigg-Skjellerup (GS) for an encounter in July 1992, and 2 additional cometary opportunities are discussed. The first is an encounter with Comet Hartley-2 (H2) in Aug., 1991. The H2 is intrinsically brighter than GS and the encounter would take place much closer to the Earth. The other potential target is Comet du Toit-Hartley (DTH), which is of considerable scientific interest because it split into 2 pieces during its 1979 apparition. Ths GS and H2 missions are the most viable; DTH is eliminated because its aphelion of transfer orbit and Sun distance at encounter (both 1.2 AU) are incompatible with Giotto's degraded thermal insulation.
Alternative cometary targets for the Giotto extended mission
1987-09-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
Elsevier | 1991
|NTIS | 1987
|NTRS | 1991
|NTIS | 1991
|GIOTTO EXTENDED MISSION ATTITUDE OPERATIONS
Online Contents | 1993
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