Recycle!

To follow up on two previous postings about explorations of our Solar System, it is nice to see NASA finally realizing that a working spacecraft in outer space is definitely cheaper than a spacecraft that is designed from scratch. Two probes had successful missions: Deep Impact rendezvoused with Comet Tempel-1 on July 4, 2005, examining the comet as it flew by and also getting a peak inside by releasing a probe that impacted with the comet. The Stardust mission flew through the tail of Comet Wild-2 in order to collect samples of the comet's coma as well as (later in the mission) samples of interstellar dust. These samples were returned to Earth on January 15, 2006. Missions over, right?

Wrong! NASA has extended both missions. Deep Impact will undertake two new missions called Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh). It will swing by Earth for a boost and course change and study Comet Boethin. It will also study stars where known extrasolar planets orbit in order to try and find other (smaller) extrasolar planets. Stardust's mission is known as New Exploration of Tempel-1 (NExT). The vehicle will rendezvous with Comet Tempel-1 and take a look a what changes may have occurred since Deep Impact's probe hit the comet.