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Stardust-NExT

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description Stardust-NExT Overview

Stardust-NExT was a NASA extended planetary mission that repurposed the Stardust spacecraft to conduct a flyby of Comet Tempel 1 in February 2011. The primary objective was to image the artificial impact crater created by the Deep Impact mission's impactor in 2005, which had not been fully observed previously. By reusing an existing spacecraft, NASA efficiently gathered new data regarding the physical changes on the comet's surface over time. The mission concluded with the spacecraft's controlled decommissioning.

help Stardust-NExT FAQ

What was the main objective of the Stardust-NExT mission?

The main objective of this NASA extended mission was to fly by Comet Tempel 1 in 2011 to image the crater created by the Deep Impact mission in 2005. It was designed to see how the comet's surface had changed during its orbit around the sun.

Did the Stardust-NExT spacecraft launch specifically for this mission?

No, NASA reused the Stardust spacecraft, which had previously completed its primary mission of collecting dust samples from Comet Wild 2 in 2004. Repurposing the existing probe allowed scientists to gather new data without the cost of launching a brand new spacecraft.

What did Stardust-NExT discover at Comet Tempel 1?

The flyby successfully photographed the Deep Impact crater, which turned out to be much shallower than scientists had predicted. It also observed that the comet's surface features had been altered by solar heating during its path through the inner solar system.

Was Stardust-NExT able to return samples to Earth?

No, the NExT mission was purely an observational flyby imaging mission. The Stardust sample return capsule had already been jettisoned and dropped off its comet dust samples to Earth back in 2006 during the original mission phase.

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