Preliminary Results From Observing The Fast Stardust Sample Return Capsule Entry In Earth's Atmosphere On January 15, 2006.

Details Preliminary Results From Observing The Fast Stardust Sample Return Capsule Entry In Earth's Atmosphere On January 15, 2006. Preliminary Results From Observing The Fast Stardust Sample Return Capsule Entry In Earth's Atmosphere On January 15, 2006.

Aug 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006iaujd..10e..20j&link_type=abstract

Progress in Planetary Exploration Missions, 26th meeting of the IAU, Joint Discussion 10, 21-22 August 2006, Prague, Czech Repub

Physics

Scientific paper

In order for NASA's Stardust mission to return a comet sample to Earth, the probe was put in an orbit similar to that of Near Earth Asteroids. As a result, the reentry in Earth's atmosphere on January 15, 2006, was the fastest entry ever for a NASA spacecraft, with a speed of 12.8 km/s, similar to that of natural fireballs. A new thermal protection material, PICA, was used to protect the sample, a material that may have a future as thermal protection for the Crew Return Vehicle or for future planetary missions. An airborne and ground-based observing campaign, the "Stardust Hyperseed MAC", was organized to observe the reentry under good observing conditions, with spectroscopic and imaging techniques commonly used for meteor observations (http:// reentry.arc.nasa.gov). A spectacular video of the reentry was obtained. The spectroscopic observations measure how much light was generated in the shock wave, how that radiation added to heating the surface, how the PICA ablated as a function of altitude, and how the carbon reacted with the shock wave to form CN, a possible marker of prebiotic chemistry in natural meteors. In addition, the observations measured a transient signal of zinc and potassium early in the trajectory, from the ablation of a white paint layer that had been applied to the heat shield for thermal control. Implications for sample return and the exploration of atmospheres in future planetary missions will be discussed.

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