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Space Topics: Stardust

Science Instruments and Technologies


InstrumentS

Navigation Camera
This camera was used to track the spacecraft’s position with respect to the comet and to take pictures of the comet as it flew by.  It was able to vary its viewing angle using an articulated mirror within a periscope, which also served to protect the camera electronics from comet particles.  The camera was built from hardware left over from other space missions, including optics from Voyager, a sensor head from Galileo, and a CCD from Cassini as well as other components from Deep Space 1.  It took 72 images of Wild 2 during the encounter, varying the exposure time to see details on the nucleus as well as the comet's faint jets.  Each pair of images also provided scientists with stereo (3-D) views of the nucleus, from which they could build shape models and determine where the jets originated on the surface of the nucleus.

Dust Flux Monitor
This particle impact counter measured the size and frequency of dust particles in the coma of Wild 2 during the flyby.  It provided real-time flux measurements of large particles and yielded the discovery that Wild 2's coma was not uniform in density but instead consisted of "sheets" of dust particles.

Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA)
CIDA is a mass spectrometer, which captured dust, analyzed it, and sent its composition back to Earth in real-time.

Aerogel sample collector on Stardust
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Aerogel sample collector on Stardust
Credit: NASA / JPL
A Particle Track in Aerogel
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A Particle Track in Aerogel
This is approximately what a single image from a Stardust@home movie will look like on the "virtual microscope." Since no interstellar dust particles have ever been captured, these samples were created in a high energy particle accellerator. Credit: Regents of the University of California, Stardust@home

Technologies

Aerogel Dust Collectors
To collect cometary and interstellar dust without damaging it, Stardust was equipped with a paddle covered with a 100-square-centimeter (15.5-square inch) collection grid covered with aerogel.  Aerogel is an extraordinary silicon-based gel that is 99.8% empty space.  Dust struck the aerogel at 6.1 kilometers per second (3.7 miles per second) and was decelerated by its passage through the material without being damaged or vaporized.  The dust particles formed long, carrot-shaped tracks up to 200 times their own length in the aerogel; these tracks will be used as pointers to find the location of the microscopic dust particles.

Sample Return Capsule (SRC)
This simple clamshell-shaped capsule ensures the success of the most important goal of the mission, the safe return of the interstellar dust particles.  Just after the encounter with Wild 2, the collector paddle folded down into the sample return capsule.  The blunt-nosed shape of the capsule ensures its stability as it falls through Earth's atmosphere.  In the lower atmosphere, the capsule will release a parachute that will be tracked using radar.  When it lands, a beacon will help researchers locate the capsule.