Stardust Sets New Record For Solar-Powered Spacecraft
On October 2, 2001, Stardust, NASA's Discovery mission to collect dust
from a comet's nucleus, became the first mission to travel past the
2.35 AU mark (218 million miles or 351 million kilometers) from the Sun on only solar power.
It's not stopping there! In November 2001, Stardust will have
traveled two billion kilometers (1.2 million miles) around the solar system since its launch in February 1999. The furthest point that the
spacecraft is expected to reach is 2.72 AU from the Sun (253 million miles or 407 million kilometers) in
mid-April 2002, before coming around for its expected comet encounter in
January 2004. The NEAR spacecraft previously held the record at 2.185
AU (203 million miles or 327 million kilometers) for the furthest distance traveled by
a solar-powered spacecraft.
Stardust's only power supply on its long journey to the asteroid belt
and back are two solar arrays, which were deployed shortly after the
spacecraft's launch on February 7, 1999. They provide 6.6 square
meters of solar energy to power the spacecraft. One nickel-hydrogen
battery a little bigger than a car battery stores the solar power
generated by the solar arrays for use during eclipses and peak power
operations.
