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P. Mahaffy (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), J. Veverka (Cornell University), H. Niemann, D. Harpold (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Chiu (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labratory), E. Reynolds (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory), T. Owen (University of Hawaii), W. Kasprzak (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), E. Raaen, E. Patrick, J. Demick (SSAI)
The CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus TOUR) Mission led by its Principal Investigator Professor Joseph Veverka of Cornell is presently under development at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for launch in July of 2002. A flyby of Comet Encke is scheduled for November 3, 2003 at a solar distance of 1.07 au. A robust Whipple dust shield is designed to allow a close nucleus approach distance (< 150 km). The 2nd nominal CONTOUR target is Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, although the spacecraft can alternately be directed to a new comet if such an interesting target is discovered. CONTOUR contains 4 instruments: an imaging spectrometer (CRISP) developed at APL that will obtain both high resolution nucleus images through 8 filters and IR spectra (800 to 2550 nm) of the nucleus, a narrow field of view forward imager (CFI) to locate the target days before the encounter, a dust composition time of flight mass spectrometer (CIDA) provided by Dr. J. Kissel and von Hoemer & Sulger, GmbH, and a mass spectrometer (NGIMS) provided by Goddard Space Flight Center to measure neutral gas and ambient ions. Laboratory calibration of the NGIMS has now been completed. NGIMS also includes an in-flight calibration system that we plan to exercise before and after each comet encounter. We will provide an overview of the CONTOUR Mission and discuss more specifically the NGIMS measurement goals for this mission.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: paul.r.mahaffy@gsfc.nasa.gov