Stardust Status Report 18 May 2001
There was one Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking pass this past week and
all subsystems are performing normally.
Images from the Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) continue to show that the camera is
operating very well. The pictures are the best since launch — stars
almost as faint as tenth visual magnitude can be detected by the NAVCAM.
Since the practice of removing coatings on the camera’s optics during
flight has yielded such good results, all associated Incidence, Surprise
and Anomaly (ISAs) reports have been closed out and the flight performance
of the Navigation Camera has been removed from the Project Concern List.
The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) instrument continues to
observe the interstellar dust stream with an optimal spacecraft attitude
when not in communication with Earth.
A workshop to kick off the encounter planning will be held May 22-24 at
Breckenridge, Colorado. The attendees include the scientists and flight
operations personnel from JPL and Lockheed Martin. The topics include
the Navigation Camera performance, results from the latest analysis of
the Comet Wild 2 dust cloud and the flyby distance.
Led by the Outreach team, the Stardust project is preparing to support
the annual JPL Open House this weekend.
For more information on the Stardust mission – the first ever comet
sample return mission – please visit the Stardust home page:
