Stardust Status Report

March 9, 2001

There were four Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking passes in the past week and all subsystems are performing normally.

The Cometary Interplanetary Dust Analyzer (CIDA), provided by the Max-Planck-Institut f. extraterrestrische Physik of Garching, Germany, was successfully commanded to operate in its negative mode. This mode allows the spacecraft to collect negative ions from interstellar space. A request was given from Co-Investigator, Jochen Kissel, for CIDA to be changed from its positive mode to negatitive mode in order to verify that the instrument is performing normally. During the last three weeks, CIDA has detected two possible dust hits on its target, bringing the total number of impacts to nine since its launch in February 1999. The next collection period, when the instrument will collect negative ions, starts March 16.

For more information on the Stardust mission - the first ever comet sample return mission - please visit the Stardust home page:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov