Comet Hopper

Comet Hopper (CHopper) was a proposed lander to NASA's Discovery Program that, had it been selected, would have orbited and landed multiple times on Comet Wirtanen as it approached the Sun. The proposed mission was led by Jessica Sunshine of the UMD, working with Lockheed Martin to build the spacecraft and the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center to manage the mission.^[1]

History

The Comet Hopper mission was one of three Discovery Program finalists that received US$3 million in May 2011 to develop a detailed concept study.^[2]

The other two missions were InSight and Titan Mare Explorer. After a review in August 2012, NASA selected the InSight mission.^[3]

Scientific goals

The CHopper mission had three primary science goals for the 7.3 years of its lifetime. At roughly 4.5 AU the spacecraft would have rendezvoused with Comet Wirtanen to map the spatial heterogeneity of surface solids as well as gas and dust emissions from the coma - the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet. The remote mapping would also allow for any nucleus structure, geologic processes, and coma mechanisms to be determined. After arriving at Comet Wirtanen, the spacecraft would have approached and landed, then subsequently hopped to other locations on the comet. As the comet approached the sun, the spacecraft would land and hop multiple times to record surface changes as the comet became more active.^[1][4] The final landing would occur at 1.5 AU.

See also

• Champollion (spacecraft)
• Mars Geyser Hopper
• Rosetta (spacecraft)
• Triton Hopper

References

External links

Press Releases

• NASA Goddard Managed Comet Hopper Mission Selected for Further Study Archived 2021-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
• Comet Hopper, a UMD/NASA Goddard Proposal, Moves to 'Final Round' in NASA Selection Process

News Articles

• Maryland scientists vie for NASA missions

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NASA Planetary Missions Program Office

Discovery program

Missions Main NEAR Shoemaker Mars Pathfinder Lunar Prospector Stardust Genesis CONTOUR† MESSENGER Deep Impact Dawn Kepler GRAIL InSight Lucy Psyche VERITAS DAVINCI Opportunity ASPERA-3 EPOXI NExT Moon Mineralogy Mapper Strofio MEGANE Proposals Finalists Mission 12 Comet Hopper Titan Mare Explorer Mission 13 and 14 DAVINCI NEOCam VERITAS Mission 15 and 16 Io Volcano Observer Trident Candidates Enceladus Life Finder Icebreaker Life ISOCHRON JET LIFE MANTIS Mars Geyser Hopper Moon Diver PADME Phobos Surveyor Whipple

New Frontiers program
Missions New Horizons Juno OSIRIS-REx Dragonfly Proposals Finalists Mission 2 MoonRise Mission 3 MoonRise SAGE Mission 4 CAESAR Candidates CONDOR CORSAIR ELF ELSAH Oceanus SPRITE VICI VISAGE VOX

Solar System Exploration program
Missions DART JUICE instruments Europa Clipper

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