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CONTOUR (Discovery 6)
CONTOUR [NASA]
CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus Tour) was a probe to flyby at least two comets (Comet 2P/Encke encounter: 12 November 2003 and Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann-3 encounter: 18 June 2006) with a number of earth swing-bys (August 2003, August 2004, Februar 2005, Februar 2006). It featured four instruments:
- CRISP (CONTOUR Remote Imager Spectrograph),
- CFI (CONTOUR Forward Imager),
- CIDA (CONTOUR Dust Analyzer) and
- NGIMS (Neutral Gas Ion Mass Spectrometer).
CONTOUR was launched by aDelta-7425 into ahighly eccentric earth phasing orbit, where after 45 days the integratedStar-30BP kick motor was fired to propell the probe into its interplanetary trajectory. After the primary mission at Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann-3, the probe could have been directed to an yet undiscovered comet.
On August 16. 2002 the kick motor was fired, but contact with the probe was lost. Images by Spacewatch showed three objects near the location of CONTOUR and aDSP early warning satellite observed a bright flare three seconds before the end of the burn, so one can assume, that the probe was destroyed due to a kick motor malfunction.
Currently APL studies the option of building a repeat CONTOUR 2 probe, which might be launched by a larger launch vehicle, thus eliminating the need to use a internal kick motor.
| Nation: | USA |
|---|---|
| Type / Application: | Multiple comet flybys |
| Operator: | NASA |
| Contractors: | Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) |
| Equipment: | CRISP, CFI, CIDA, NGIMS |
| Configuration: | Octagonal body, dust shields |
| Propulsion: | Star-30BP kick motor |
| Power: | Body mounted solar-arrays, batteries |
| Lifetime: | |
| Mass: | 1005 kg |
| Orbit: | Initially 90 km × 106689 km, 30.5°, later Heliocentric |
| Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CONTOUR (Discovery 6) | 2002-034A | 03.07.2002 | CC SLC-17A | Delta-7425 [Star-30BP] |
Launch Sites:
- CC = Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA
References:
- CONTOUR Homepage
- NASA Discovery program:CONTOUR
- NSSDC Master Catalog:CONTOUR
- Mars Pathfinder (Discovery 1)
- NEAR (Discovery 2)
- Lunar Prospector (Discovery 3)
- Stardust / NExT (Discovery 4)
- Genesis (Discovery 5)
- CONTOUR (Discovery 6)
- Deep Impact / EPOXI (Discovery 7)
- MESSENGER (Discovery 8)
- Dawn (Discovery 9)
- Kepler (Discovery 10)
- GRAIL A, B (Discovery 11, Ebb, Flow)
- InSight (Discovery 12)
- Lucy (Discovery 13)
- Psyche (Discovery 14)
- DAVINCI (Discovery 15)
- VERITAS (Discovery 16)
