Comet Hopper

The following template should be used for ONE of the three above fields "end_of_mission", "decay" or "landing" if the spacecraft is no longer operational. If it landed intact, use it for the landing time, otherwise for the date it ceased operations, or the decay date if it was still operational when it re-entered. (for Zulu/UTC) or (if time unknown)

If in doubt, leave it out-- Comet Hopper (CHopper) was a proposed lander to NASA's Discovery Program that, had it been selected, would have orbited and landed multiple times on Comet Wirtanen as it approached the Sun. The proposed mission was led by Jessica Sunshine of the UMD, working with Lockheed Martin to build the spacecraft and the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center to manage the mission.

History

The Comet Hopper mission was one of three Discovery Program finalists that received million in May 2011 to develop a detailed concept study.

The other two missions were InSight and Titan Mare Explorer. After a review in August 2012, NASA selected the InSight mission.

Scientific goals

The CHopper mission had three primary science goals for the 7.3 years of its lifetime. At roughly 4.5 AU the spacecraft would have rendezvoused with Comet Wirtanen to map the spatial heterogeneity of surface solids as well as gas and dust emissions from the coma - the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet. The remote mapping would also allow for any nucleus structure, geologic processes, and coma mechanisms to be determined. After arriving at Comet Wirtanen, the spacecraft would have approached and landed, then subsequently hopped to other locations on the comet. As the comet approached the sun, the spacecraft would land and hop multiple times to record surface changes as the comet became more active. The final landing would occur at 1.5 AU.

References

References

1. "Planetary Science Division Update". [[NASA]].
2. Taylor, Kate. (9 May 2011). "NASA picks project shortlist for next Discovery mission". TG Daily.
3. Vastag, Brian. (August 20, 2012). "NASA will send robot drill to Mars in 2016". [[The Washington Post]].
4. "Maryland scientists vie for NASA missions". [[The Baltimore Sun]].