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Assessment of Planned Scientific Content of the CRAF Mission Letter Report (1987) (1987) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 1-5

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From page 1...
... A later assessment will deal specifically with these concerns, noted below, and with the critical matter of measurement capabilities of the selected instrumental packages as they relate to the measurement requirements specified in the COMPLEX strategy report." At its April 1987 meeting, COMPLEX carried out a second review of the CRAF mission, based in part an presentations by M Neugebauer/CRAF Project Scientist on investigations and instruments selected for accommodation study, and by R.F.
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From page 2...
... We emphasize that preliminary analysis of the Halley flyby measurements has brought into sharper focus the intrinsic physical and chemical complexity of the cometary environment, and has mandated detailed study of a comet by a long-term and well-instrumented rendezvous mission such as CRAF. In all respects, the selected CRAF science payload instruments represent significant advances over their Halley counterparts, and add essential capabilities that were not present on the various Halley spacecraft.
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From page 3...
... The compositional diversity seen in micron and submicron Halley dust suggests that individual particle measurements from the SEMPA and COMA instruments on CRAF will provide critical data for comparison of cometary matter with chondritic and interstellar grain models. If all comets -- and other primitive bodies -- have approximately chondritic non-volatile bulk composition, then the diversity at the individual grain level will be the only significant means for comparing materials formed by different processes in different environments.
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From page 4...
... of the water ice, and the molecular composition and modes of trapping of volatile species within it, and is thus responsive in a unique manner to the prime scientific goal of determining the conditions under which cometary ices formed. While the ambient temperature regime at penetrator depth may have erased some of this information, such in situ analysis of ice structures and volatile contents presents one of the better opportunities, short of pristine, thermally insulated sample return, for diagnosing cometary formation conditions.
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From page 5...
... Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have regarding this assessment, or for further discussion. Last update 5/18/00 at 3:31 pm Site managed by Anne Simmons, Space Studies Board Site managed by the SSB Web Group.
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Key Terms

  • craf science
  • craf mission
  • science objectives
  • penetrator experiment
  • space studies

  • accommodation study
  • strategy report
  • physical state
  • complex science
  • selected craf

  • complex strategy
  • comet nucleus
  • coma dust
  • planned scientific
  • scientific results

  • measurement requirements
  • dust particles
  • scientific content
  • critical data
  • compositional measurements

  • measurement capabilities
  • gas chromatography
  • comet science
  • selected science
  • space science

  • craf payload
  • science strategies
  • science planning
  • recommended science
  • science teams


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