Affordable solar system exploration

Abstract

The design features of the Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby (CRAF) version of the Mariner Mark II spacecraft are described, together with the instruments to be carried aboard and the goals of the mission. To minimize the cost, computer-aided design, engineering, and manufacturing will be used, and, where possible, established technologies and off-the- shelf products will be incorporated. Planned for a launch in 1992, the CRAF will rendezvous with the Tempel 2 comet in 1996 and will stick with it through 1999, making studies of plasma in the comet's coma and the comet's dust, gas, and nucleus by means of its penetrator rocket which will pierce the nucleus.