Comet Hopper
Encyclopedia
Comet Hopper is a proposed lander
to NASA's
Discovery Program that, if selected, would orbit and land multiple times on Comet Wirtanen as the comet approaches the Sun
. The proposed mission is led by Dr. Jessica Sunshine of the UMD
, working with Lockheed Martin
to build the spacecraft and the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center to manage the mission.
the spacecraft will rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen and begin to map the spatial heterogeneity of gas and dust emissions from the coma as well as surface solids. The remote mapping will also allow for any nucleus structure, geologic processes, and coma mechanisms to be determined. After arriving at the comet, the spacecraft will approach and land, then subsequently hop to other locations on the comet. As the comet approaches the sun, the spacecraft will land and hop multiple times. The final landing will occur at 1.5 AU. As the comet approaches the sun and becomes more active, the spacecraft will be able to record surface changes.
News Articles
Lander (spacecraft)
A lander is a spacecraft which descends toward and comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body. For bodies with atmospheres, the landing is called atmospheric reentry and the lander descends as a re-entry vehicle...
to NASA's
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
Discovery Program that, if selected, would orbit and land multiple times on Comet Wirtanen as the comet approaches the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. The proposed mission is led by Dr. Jessica Sunshine of the UMD
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, working with Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
to build the spacecraft and the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center to manage the mission.
Scientific goals
The CHopper mission has three primary science goals over the 7.3 years of its nominal lifetime. At roughly 4.5 AUAstronomical unit
An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
the spacecraft will rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen and begin to map the spatial heterogeneity of gas and dust emissions from the coma as well as surface solids. The remote mapping will also allow for any nucleus structure, geologic processes, and coma mechanisms to be determined. After arriving at the comet, the spacecraft will approach and land, then subsequently hop to other locations on the comet. As the comet approaches the sun, the spacecraft will land and hop multiple times. The final landing will occur at 1.5 AU. As the comet approaches the sun and becomes more active, the spacecraft will be able to record surface changes.
Instrument suite
CHopper will carry five instruments:- CHIRS- CHopper Infrared Spectrometer
- CHIMS- CHopper Ion/Neutral Mass Spectrometer
- CHI- CHopper Imager
- CHEX- CHopper Heating Experiment
- PanCams- Panoramic Cameras
External links
Press Releases- NASA Goddard Managed Comet Hopper Mission Selected for Further Study
- Comet Hopper, a UMD/NASA Goddard Proposal, Moves to 'Final Round' in NASA Selection Process
News Articles