Giotto was the first deep space probe built by the European Space Agency, and is by far
the boldest and most daring spacecraft ever built. Despite it's highly dangerous, if not
suicidal mission, Giotto has survived far longer than anyone anticipated. Giotto's original
mission was to fly through the coma of Halley's comet, right in front of the speeding
nucleus of the comet.
Giotto was built in a cylinder-shaped body with armored plates of steel and solid
aluminum to protect from high-speed particle impacts. The small high-gain antenna on
Giotto was positioned almost inside of the armored body, pointed away from the comet.
The spacecraft penetrated inside of the coma of Halley's comet, the cloud of gas and dust
around the core, at a speed of 44 miles per second. As it did so, it was bombarded with
small particles flying at hundreds of miles per second, delivering blows equal to hand-grenade explosions. Several instruments were badly damaged, including the camera.
However, Giotto survived, and flew to within 370 miles of the center of the comet.
Before the camera was destroyed, the spacecraft returned pictures of the core of the
comet, revealing a peanut-shaped body of ice and dust, covered in a blanket of rich
organic materials.
After the Halley's Comet encounter, Giotto was able to make a series of highly delicate
maneuvers, allowing it to encounter a second comet called Grigg-Skjelerup. This
encounter was also highly successful. Giotto has returned more information about comets
than any other spacecraft ever built.
Unfortunately, after Giotto's second comet encounter, the spacecraft had run out of
maneuvering fuel. Thus, Giotto's operational life had come to an end. However, many
scientists claimed that a space probe could not survive flying through a comet. Giotto not
only survived this dangerous and impossible mission, but repeated the same feat again.
This small European probe is certainly the champion of the comet chasers.
