The Stardust spacecraft yesterday reached a point in space farther from the Sun than any other solar-powered craft in history. Stardust is now more than 253 million miles (407 million kilometers) from the Sun.
The robotic probe is scheduled to rendezvous with a comet and collect dust from its environment, then return the samples to Earth. Since its launch on February 7, 1999, Stardust has traveled more than 1.24 billion miles (2 billion kilometers), orbiting the Sun one-and-a-half times on an elliptical path.
The craft, well beyond the orbit of Mars, sees sunlight that is 13 percent as intense as what we experience on Earth. This results in diminished power, according to NASA. Yet the spacecraft is "performing excellently in this environment," NASA officials said in a statement.
Stardust will venture out no further. Already, it has begun falling back towards the Sun. By the end of the mission, in January 2006, it will have completed another loop and a half around the Sun. On January 2, 2004, on its final solar orbit, Stardust will fly past comet Wild 2 to collect samples and return them to Earth in 2006.
In January 2006, the samples will be delivered by parachute inside the Stardust Sample Return Capsule to the Utah Testing and Training Range.
Comet dust is thought to hold clues to the early history of the solar system. Comets form beyond Neptune's orbit and may be the building blocks of planets.
The returned samples will be distributed to scientists around the world. The mission is expected to provide insights into the nature of materials that aided in the formation of planets, both in the solar system and perhaps even around other stars.
Stardust is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Astronautics.
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