Jul 3 2002
From The Space Library
NASA launched Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) on a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. NASA scientists had created CONTOUR~ scheduled to make close approaches to comets Encke, Schwassmann-Wachmann-3, and d'Arrest~ to analyze the composition of comets. Engineers had designed the spacecraft to capture 4-meter-resolution (13-foot-resolution) images of the comets' nuclei during its encounters and to perform spectral mapping of the nuclei at resolutions of 100 to 200 meters (328 to 656 feet). Astronomers planned to supplement the data obtained through CONTOUR's observations with data captured by Earth-based or Earth-orbital telescopes. In addition, NASA planned for CONTOUR to collect data on gas and dust from the environment near the comets' nuclei. (NASA, Aeronautics and Space Report of the President: Fiscal Year 2002, p. 116; NASA Science Mission Directorate, “Missions: CONTOUR,” http://nasascience.nasa.gov/missions/contour (accessed 22 August 2008).)
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