Suisei

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Suisei spacecraft

Suisei ( Japaneseす い せ い, Eng. Comet ) was a Japanese space probe that explored Comet Halley in 1986 . It weighed 139.5 kg (scientific payload 10 kg) and had solar cells for energy supply, a spin wheel for stabilization (2000 revolutions / min) and various scientific measuring devices.

mission

Suisei was the structurally identical, but differently instrumented (UV camera and solar wind detector) sister probe of Sakigake for exploring Comet Halley. In the preparatory phase, the mission was called Planet-A .

course

  • Suisei took off on August 18, 1985 from the Japanese missile center Kagoshima on an M-3SII-2 launcher .
  • The probe had the closest approach to Halley on March 8, 1986 with a distance of 151,000 km. Suisei transmitted the requested data and registered only two critical hits from cosmic dust .
  • On April 5, 1987, the probe's engine was activated and a course to earth was taken . After one or more swing-bys on Earth, the plan was to fly by the comets Tempel-Tuttle (planned for February 28, 1998) and Giacobini-Zinner (planned for November 24, 1998).
  • On February 22, 1991, however, Suisei's fuel supplies were completely exhausted, so that the probe was then switched off - long before it had reached Earth.

Result

The originally set goal was achieved. Suisei was ultimately a test flight and a more ambitious result failed due to the inexperience of the Japanese in this area.

See also

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ JAXA: ( Memento from January 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) The SUISEI (PLANET-A) Mission