Early missions to comets

Abstract

Two specific early missions to the comets Grigg-Skjellerup in 1977 and Encke in 1980 are proposed as precusor missions to Encke rendezvous and Halley intercept in 1986. The mission guidelines and principal objectives are presented. The spacecraft IMP was chosen for the flythrough mission for Grigg-Skjellerup in 1977, and the Helios spacecraft for the Encke mission in 1980. The mission trajectories are summarized in graphs.