Fourth John V. Breakwell memorial lecture the use of earth-return trajectories for missions to comets

Abstract

The concept of using Earth-return trajectories in connection with missions to comets was originally proposed in 1972. Papers published in the 1970's and 1980's showed that by using multiple Earth-to-Earth transfers, it was possible to construct a trajectory that would encounter several comets. This technique was used for the first time by ESA's Giotto spacecraft. Following its encounter with Halley's comet in March 1986, Giotto used a single Earth gravity-assist maneuver to intercept comet Grigg-Skjellerup in July 1992. Japan's Sakigake spacecraft tried to use Earth gravity-assist maneuvers to reach comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova in 1996, but was not successful. Earth-return trajectories are essential elements of two Discovery-class missions to comets; Stardust, and the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR). The Stardust mission will be launched in February 1999, and will return dust samples collected from comet Wild-2 to the Earth in 2006. CONTOUR is scheduled for a launch in June 2002, and will use six Earth gravity-assist maneuvers to carry out three comet encounters: Encke in 2003; Schwassmann-Wachmann-3 in 2006; and d'Arrest in 2008. An extended-mission scenario would allow CONTOUR to accomplish two additional encounters: Tempel-2 in 2015, and Encke for a second time in 2023.