Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utastro.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!dipper
From: dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: StarDate: October 2 Comet Rendezvous/ Asteroid Flyby
Message-ID: <603@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Oct-84 02:00:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.603
Posted: Tue Oct  2 02:00:22 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Oct-84 04:49:54 EDT
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 40


A possible new space mission would send a craft past an asteroid --
toward a rendezvous with a comet.  More about it -- right after this.

October 2  Comet Rendezvous/ Asteroid Flyby

In September, 1985, a NASA spacecraft will sweep through the tail of
Comet Giacobini-Zinner.  A few months later, a NASA spacecraft orbiting
Venus will be turned to take a look at Comet Halley.  And shortly after
that, craft from the Soviet Union, Europe and Japan will fly past Comet
Halley, providing close-up data for a few hours or days.

But, in the 1990s, NASA may launch a spacecraft that'll sweep past an
asteroid -- then fly side-by-side with a comet for some YEARS.  The
Comet Rendezvous/ Asteroid Flyby mission is being studied for a July,
1990, launch.

In May, 1991, the proposed spacecraft would sweep past an asteroid
called Tanete -- getting the first-ever close-up images of an
asteroid.  Then in February, 1994, it would achieve a matching orbit
with Comet Kopff -- due to round the sun 879 days later.

The craft would monitor Comet Kopff for at least three years --
sometimes moving in orbit around the icy core or "nucleus" of the comet
-- sometimes flying in formation with it -- and sometimes maneuvering
down the comet's long tail.  Its distance from the comet's nucleus
would range from about 30,000 miles to about 6 miles.  All this time,
the spacecraft would be acquiring good, sharp images of the comet --
and answering many scientific questions including, what does a comet
nucleus look like?  What changes occur as the comet nears the sun?

That's a possible new mission for the 1990s -- a comet rendezvous/
asteroid flyby -- scheduled to become a candidate for a "new start" in
funding in fiscal 1987.


Script by Deborah Byrd.


(c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin