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Stardust, part 2
An extra-added attraction of Stardust’s mission is use of the main part of the spacecraft, sans the sample return capsule. Called the spacecraft bus, this hardware will continue outward into space, orbiting the Sun.
NASA’s Dantzler told SPACE.com that future use of the hardware is possible. Early next year, the next announcement of opportunity for Discovery-class missions will be issued. A request for proposals to use the Stardust spacecraft bus is to be included within that document, he said.
The ultimate fate of the Stardust bus is that it will likely be ejected from the solar system, Brownlee observed. "We have a crew onboard," he said, calling attention to the names of over a million people etched on a tiny silicon chip that is attached to the hardware.
"I’m intrigued by the thought those names on that spacecraft will far outlive the Earth," Brownlee said. "That spacecraft and those names will still be floating around the galaxy somewhere" after the Sun becomes a red giant and scorches our Earth, he concluded.
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