Small Bodies Mission Support

Vega 2

The Vega mission combined a rendezvous with comet Halley and an exploration of the atmosphere of Venus. To increase the reliability and the overall return of the science data, the mission consisted of two spacecraft, Vega 1 and Vega 2. They were launched on 15 and 21 December 1984, respectively. On 11 and 15 June 1985, they successfully delivered balloons into the Venus atmosphere. The two spacecraft then successfully encountered Halley on 6 and 9 March 1986. Their closest approaches were 8.89 km and 8.03 km, respectively. They were intended to measure the physical parameters of the nucleus, such as dimensions, shape, temperature and surface properties, as well as to study the structure and dynamics of the coma, the gas composition close to the nucleus, the dust particles' composition and mass distribution as functions of distance to the nucleus and the cometary-solar wind interaction. Spacecraft operations were discontinued a few weeks after the Halley encounters.

The NSSDC has a webpage with more mission information. The SBN also has data sets from the Vega 1 mission in its archives.

The SBN is the PDS node leading the efforts to restore and archive the data from the small body missions such as the Vega 2 mission.

Mission Home Page      Instruments      Mission Data      Target Data

On-Board Instruments

Instrument/Investigation What was measured Available SBN Data
Television System
(TVS) 		Dimensions and albedo of nucleus and dynamics of central part of coma TVS
TVS, Processed from KFKI
TVS, Transform from IKF
Infrared Spectrometer
(IKS) 		Radiation from the inner coma none
Three-Channel Spectrometer
(TKS) 		Composition of coma and tail, polarization and spectrum of light component diffused by dust, primary molecules, spectral signature of nucleus none
Shield Penetration Detector
(PHOTON) 		Flux density of high-mass dust particles none
Dust-Particle Counter and Mass Analyzer
(DUCMA) 		Count rate and mass distribution of dust particles in cometary environment DUCMA
Dust-Particle Impact Plasma Detector
(SP-1) 		Flux and mass distribution of the dust particles SP-1
Dust-Particle Impact Detector
(SP-2) 		Flux and mass distribution of the dust particles SP-2
Dust Mass Spectrometer
(PUMA) 		Chemical composition, size and spatial density of solid particles PUMA, from IKI
PUMA, Processed from MPI
Neutral-Gas Mass Spectrometer
(ING) 		Distribution of main and secondary constituents of cometary atmosphere none
Plasma Energy Analyzer
(PM-1) 		Solar wind parameters, density and chemical composition of ion population PM-1
Energetic Particle Analyzer
(TN-M) 		Energy and flux of cometary ions none
Magnetometer
(MISCHA) 		Magnetic field MISCHA
Plasma-Wave and Ion-Trap Experiment
(APV-N) 		Interaction between solar wind and cometary atmosphere none
Electric-Field and Langmuir-Probes Experiment
(APV-V) 		Solar wind-comet interaction, mass loading, plasma-density and temperature profiles and signatures of collision-free shocks none

Mission Data

Instrument/
Investigation
Target     SBN Archieve
TVS 1P/Halley IHW data, from IKI ( description , data )
IHW data, Transform from IKF ( description , data )
IHW data, Processed from KFKI ( description , data )
DUCMA 1P/Halley International Halley Watch data ( description , data )
SP-1 1P/Halley International Halley Watch data ( description , data )
SP-2 1P/Halley International Halley Watch data ( description , data )
PUMA 1P/Halley IHW data, from IKI ( description , data )
IHW data, Processed from MPI ( description , data )
PM1 1P/Halley International Halley Watch data ( description , data )
MISCHA 1P/Halley International Halley Watch data ( description , data )

Other Target Observations

Target Target Type Other Data Sets Targeting this Object
1P/Halley Comet International Halley Watch CDROM archive