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Now that we've protected the STARDUST spacecraft from damage from comet dust,
we've come to the last big engineering challenge—how to collect
those same particles. When the spacecraft flies through the comet, these particles
will hit the collector at speeds up to 21,000 km/hour—that's nine
times the speed of a rifle bullet!
Engineers studied several methods to collect comet dust and particles for scientific study. Which method do you think would work best?
| Use inflatable plastic tubes to capture comet vapor from particles that penetrate the tubes and vaporize | Use a sponge-like silicon material called aerogel, capture the particles intact | Use plastic foam to capture the particles intact |
| Spacecraft images copyright 1996-97, California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Further reproduction prohibited. |