Comet rendezvous - The next step

Abstract

Features of a proposed NASA-West Germany Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby mission (CRAF) are summarized. The spacecraft would carry an imaging system, visual and IR mapping spectrometers, an IR radiometer, an instrumented lander probe, ion mass, neutral-gas, secondary-ion mass, superthermal-ion and retarding potential ion mass spectrometers, etc. The spacecraft would fly alongside the nucleus, hover near it, and circle it. The earliest potential encounter would be with Comet Tempel 2 in October 1996, followed by a flyby of the asteroid 46 Hestia. The science goals of the mission are explored, mainly with reference to unanswered questions remaining after the Halley missions.