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That's
right! STARDUST uses ceramic blankets and cloth bumpers called Whipple
Shields. These shields protect the spacecraft during its high speed encounter
with the comet.
How do they work? The bumper shields disrupt particles on impact. Then, ceramic cloth blankets further dissipate and spread the particle debris. STARDUST uses three blankets in the main body shield and two in the solar array shields.
Ready for the next engineering challenge?
| Spacecraft images copyright 1996-97, California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Further reproduction prohibited. |