archive: SETI [ASTRO] University Of Kent On A Wild Comet Chase

SETI [ASTRO] University Of Kent On A Wild Comet Chase

Larry Klaes ( lklaes@bbn.com )
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 10:11:16 -0500

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>Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 16:36:59 GMT
>From: Ron Baalke <BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov>
>To: astro@lists.mindspring.com
>Subject: [ASTRO] University Of Kent On A Wild Comet Chase
>Sender: owner-astro@brickbat12.mindspring.com
>Reply-To: Ron Baalke <BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov>
>
>ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PRESS INFORMATION NOTE
>Date: 2 February 1999
>Ref. PN 99/04
>
>Issued by:
>Peter Bond,
>RAS Space Science Advisor.
>10 Harrier Close,
>Cranleigh,
>Surrey, GU6 7BS,
>United Kingdom.
>Phone: +44 (0)1483-268672
>Fax: +44 (0)1483-274047
>E-mail: 100604.1111@compuserve.com
>
>http://www.ras.org.uk/ras
>
>INFORMATION ON CONTACTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS IS GIVEN AT THE END OF THIS
>RELEASE.
>
>UNIVERSITY OF KENT ON A WILD COMET CHASE!
>
>A UK-built experiment will soon be heading towards Comet Wild 2
>(pronounced "Vilt-2") as part of NASA's exciting STARDUST mission.
>Professor Tony McDonnell and Dr. Mark Burchell from the University of
>Kent will be among the scientists at the Kennedy Spaceflight Centre in
>Florida who are eagerly anticipating the forthcoming mission to capture
>and return a sample of cometary material.
>
>Stardust is currently set for launch on Saturday, February 6. After a
>five year voyage to reach its target, Stardust will fly past the comet
>in January 2004. Approaching at a speed of 6 km/s (14,000 mph),
>Stardust will capture the tiny dust particles that make up the comet's
>tail, eventually returning them to Earth in January 2006. In order to
>avoid damaging the fragile particles, panels of aerogel - sometimes
>called 'solid smoke' because of its extreme lightness - will be exposed
>to the dust stream and used to entrap them.
>
>The overall dust environment around the comet will also be studied in
>detail. One of the instruments used to measure the characteristics of
>this dust is a sensitive dust detection system.
>
>This Large Area Momentum Sensor (LAMS) is mounted on Stardust's front
>bumper shield. The circular shield, which consists of three layers, is
>used to protect the vulnerable spacecraft from high speed impacts. At
>the rear of the shield is a set of microphones, designed by Kent in
>collaboration with the University of Chicago. These will listen to the
>'sound' of the dust particles as they strike the spacecraft.
>
>The microphone attached to the back of the external aluminium layer
>will record impacts from smaller particles. Larger grains which
>penetrate the aluminium will be detected by a second microphone fixed
>to a layer of Nextel cloth. The number of impacts on the shield will be
>counted from the number of electrical pulses picked up by the Kent
>sensors, while the voltage of each pulse will enable particle mass to
>be calculated.
>
>UKC team member Dr. Mark Burchell said, "Using the special facilities
>in our laboratory, we have been able to recreate the high speed impacts
>on a mock-up of the Stardust spacecraft. This allowed us to test the
>microphones which will 'listen' to the impacts on the real spacecraft
>as it flies past the comet."
>
>Dust particles ejected by comets are thought to have been preserved in
>almost pristine condition since our Solar System formed some
>4,600,000,000 years ago. Professor Tony McDonnell, Director of the
>Unit for Space Sciences, pointed out that "since comets are probably
>the most primitive objects in our Solar System, this is a very
>important mission which will greatly extend our understanding of them
>and of the conditions out of which our Solar System developed".
>
>Also involved in the team is postgraduate student Bryan Vaughan, who
>will be basing his doctorate thesis on the University of Kent Stardust
>research.
>
>The University of Kent involvement with this NASA mission is funded by
>a grant from PPARC, the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
>Council.
>
>Stardust is a prelude to an even more ambitious European Space Agency
>mission called Rosetta. A number of UK groups are involved in this
>mission, including the University of Kent, the Open University, and
>Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Scheduled for launch in 2003, Rosetta
>will actually land a probe on the surface of a comet, but not until the
>year 2011!
>
>NOTES.
>Stardust will be the first spacecraft ever to bring cometary material
>back to Earth for analysis by scientists worldwide. Its main objective
>is to collect return particles flying off the nucleus of Comet Wild-2.
>It will also bring back samples of interstellar dust, including the
>recently discovered dust streaming into the Solar System from other
>stars. Ground-based analysis of these samples after their return in
>January 2006 should yield important insights into the evolution of the
>Sun and planets, and possibly into the origin of life itself.
>
>Other objectives are to take pictures of the comet, count the comet
>particles striking the spacecraft, and produce real-time analyses of the
>composition of the material ejected by the comet.
>
>Stardust is the fourth of NASA's low-cost Discovery missions.
>
>CONTACT:
>In Florida:
>Prof. Tony McDonnell: (001) 407-783-2230
>At UKC:
>Dr. John Zarnecki, +44 (0)1227-823237 Fax (for all) +44 (0)1227-62616
>E-mail: J.C.Zarnecki@ukc.ac.uk
>Dr. Simon Green, +44 (0)1227-823780 E-mail: S.F.Green@ukc.ac.uk
>Dr. Neil McBride, +44 (0)1227-827654 E-mail: N.McBride@ukc.ac.uk
>Unit for Space Sciences and Astrophysics Office, +44 (0)1227-459616
>
>Further details can be found on the World Wide Web as follows:
>UKC STARDUST Home Page: http://wwwspace.ukc.ac.uk/stardust.html
>UKC Space Activities: http://wwwspace.ukc.ac.uk/
>NASA STARDUST Home Page: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/
>
>