Abstract
In this paper, comet coma sample return mission is discussed and proposed as one of the most promising interplanetary missions in the 1990’s. As the result of preliminary mission analysis, the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C.G.) was selected, out of 36 candidates of short period comet, as the best target to be en-countered with a spacecraft. This selection was done by taking into consideration of assurance of a fair amount of “intact” cometary dust sampling and free earth return trajectory. A typical mission scenario to the comet C.G. shows that the spacecraft should be launched in 1995, will fly by the comet on January, 1996 and will return to the earth in 2000. Aerobraking technique should be used in order to lower apogee height of the orbit around the earth before retrieval by an Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle. The result also shows that a spin-stabilized 500 kg class spacecraft can be sent if a launch vehicle of which capability is about 2 tons to LEO is available.
