The Stardust spacecraft completed its prime mission in 2006, returning samples from the coma of comet Wild 2 to earth in the sample return capsule. Still healthy, and in a heliocentric orbit, the Stardust spacecraft was repurposed for a new mission - Stardust NExT. This new mission would take the veteran spacecraft to a 2011 encounter with comet Tempel 1, providing a new look at the comet visited in 2005 by the Deep Impact mission. This extended mission for Stardust would push it to the limits of its fuel reserves, prompting several studies aimed at determining the actual remaining fuel on board. The results were used to plan mission events within the constraints of this dwindling resource. The team tracked fuel consumption and adjusted the mission plans to stay within the fuel budget. This effort intensified toward the end of the mission, when a final assessment showed even less remaining fuel than previously predicted, triggering a delay in the start of comet imaging during the approach phase. The flyby of comet Tempel 1 produced spectacular up close views of this comet, imaging previously seen areas as well as new territory, and providing clear views of the location of the 2005 impact. The spacecraft was decommissioned about a month after the flyby, revealing that the fuel tank was now empty after having flown successfully for 12 years, returned comet dust samples to earth, and flown by an asteroid and two comets.


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    Title :

    Lessons Learned in the Decommissioning of the Stardust Spacecraft


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    SpaceOps 2012 ; 2012 ; Stockholm, Sweden


    Publication date :

    2012-06-11


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    Lessons Learned in the Decommissioning of the Stardust Spacecraft

    Larson, T. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2012



    Stardust-NExT: Lessons Learned from a Comet Flyby Mission

    Wolf, Aron / Larson, Tim / Thompson, Paul et al. | NTRS | 2012


    Stardust-next : Lessons Learned from a Comet Flyby Mission

    Wolf, Aron A. / Larson, Timothy / Thompson, Paul et al. | NTRS | 2012