There are currently two active spacecraft missions designed to return samples to Earth from small bodies in our Solar System. STARDUST will return samples from the comet Wild 2, and HAYABUSA will return samples from the asteroid Itokawa. On January 3,2004, the STARDUST spacecraft made the closest ever flyby (236 km) of the nucleus of a comet - Comet Wild 2. During the flyby the spacecraft collected samples of dust from the coma of the comet. These samples will be returned to Earth on January 15,2006. After a brief preliminary examination to establish the nature of the returned samples, they will be made available to the general scientific community for study. The HAYABUSA spacecraft arrived at the Near Earth Asteroid Itokawa in September 2005 and is currently involved in taking remote sensing data from the asteroid. Several practice landings have been made and a sample collection landing will be made soon. The collected sample will be returned to Earth in June 2007. During my talk I will discuss the scientific goals of the STARDUST and HAYABUSA missions and provide an overview of their designs and flights to date. I will also show some of the exciting data returned by these spacecraft during their encounters with their target objects.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    STARDUST and HAYABUSA: Sample Return Missions to Small Bodies in the Solar System


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    JPL Educator Conference: Comets, Asteroids, and Much More -Small Bodies - the Solar System's New Zoo


    Publication date :

    2005-01-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Japanese Hayabusa Asteroid Sample Return

    Thompson, Tommy | NTRS | 2011


    Stardust Sample Return Mission

    S. A. Sandford | NTIS | 2021



    The Stardust Sample Return Mission

    Scott Alan Sandford | NTRS


    Stardust Sample Return Capsule Design Experience

    William H. Willcockson | AIAA | 1999