German Dust Analyzer Closes In On Comet

IRON AND ICE

German Dust Analyzer Closes In On Comet Wild-2 For Friday Flyby

Schwetzingen - Dec 30, 2003
On January 2nd at 19.20 UTC NASA's Stardust spacecraft will finally reach its target. After a journey of nearly 5 years through the solar system, the spacecraft will encounter the comet Wild 2. As one of only two fully scientific instruments, the spacecraft carries the German dust analyzer CIDA, built by the Schwetzingen-based company von Hoerner & Sulger.

Stardust's task for this day is to collect and analyse the comet's dust as the probe performs a daring flyby past the comet's nucleus and its tail. Then, for the first time ever, the spacecraft will return to Earth carrying a selection of dust samples for scientists to investigate in their laboratories. The capsule containing the precious space dust is expected to arrive back on earth on the 15th January 2006, landing in the U.S. state of Utah.

However, the dust particles and complex organic molecules from the comet nucleus are extremely fragile and are at some risk of being damaged during their capture by the spacecraft: Stardust passes the comet at a high velocity of 6 km/s. Therefore from the outset NASA wanted to have a proven instrument on the spacecraft, which is capable of providing immediate feedback and analysis of the cometary dust which is being collected.

The choice was easy: CIDA, the latest version of a family of dust analyzers built by von Hoerner & Sulger, Schwetzingen. These instruments had already taken part in the "Halley Armada" in 1986, when three such instruments were used to place Halley's Comet under the magnifying glass leading to many important and significant discoveries.

Once again the engineers from von Hoerner & Sulger with the lead scientist Dr. Jochen Kissel of the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, were selected for this NASA mission, with funding provided by the German federal government.

Stardust is the first mission with the major focus on the dusty environment of a comet. As a secondary objective it will also collect the space dust which passes through our solar system.

This interstellar dust and the dust found around the comet are closely related to each other and promise to provide crucial insight into the formation of our solar system and perhaps even the origin of life on planet Earth.

Whilst the encounter with Wild 2 will last a mere moment relative to the duration of the mission, CIDA - the Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer - will collect thousands of particles. The full analysis of the flood of data will take many months. All the staff at von Hoerner & Sulger GmbH are delighted to have made a major contribution to one of the most exciting space projects of our time.

IRON AND ICE

Chicago To Bump Through Comet

Chicago - Dec 28, 2003
A University of Chicago instrument will be riding shotgun on NASA's Stardust comet sampler which is set to fly by comet Wild-2 January 2, 2004. During the flyby Stardust will be blasted with a hail of dust particles traveling at over six kilometers per second as the spacecraft approaches to within 150 kilometers (93 miles) of Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt"-2) in 2004.

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