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MPC Theatre: Comet Chasers
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1995-05-24
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As funding for NASA dwindles in the United States, and more countries become space-
faring nations, we emerge in a time when there is no superpower in space. Rather, we
venture out as a multinational people, driven by the same human urges to explore the
unexplored.
Although ideas for space probes, satellites, and other types of missions are bountiful, funds
are increasingly limited. A recent proposal made by JPL was the Comet
Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby (CRAF) mission. Although the scientific merits for this
mission were very high, and the gain in knowledge would have been great, it was canceled
for a perceived lack of money.
The CRAF probe was designed on the new generation of Mariner Mark II spacecraft, and
would have been a joint NASA-ESA mission. The probe was to have launched in 1996,
flying close to a main-belt asteroid on its way to intercept Comet Tempel 2 in the year
2003. CRAF was to accompany the comet from near the time of aphelion (its furthest
point from the Sun) until after it had rounded the Sun on its long elliptical orbit.
One of the most interesting components of the CRAF probe was a small penetrator that
would be fired straight into the heart of the comet. This bullet-shaped instrument would
have penetrated the surface of the cosmic snowball, returning the first direct
measurements of a comet.
By the time the mission had finished, we would have learned a great deal about the
medium of space debris around the outside of our Solar System, and perhaps more about
the material makeup of our Universe. In 1992, the out-going U.S. administration deleted
CRAF from its list of funding requests, thus killing the project.
However, while governments fluctuate, science presses forward. There will no doubt be
more ideas for comet research, and more daring and innovative probes will be built.
Nonetheless, without public interest, it will be difficult to attain government support.
Perhaps in the future, more educated citizens will see the material and intellectual benefits
of space exploration, as well as the adventure.