Stardust space probe has completed his career last "jerk"

Before the "care» Stardust passed to the Earth and technical data on its status and progress of the maneuver. These data will help experts refine mathematical models of fuel for future missions. "Stardust probe has completed its latest space mission," – said in a statement by NASA. All transmitters Stardust have been disabled to exclude certain probability that the probe has ever suddenly begins to "broadcast" on the frequencies are already occupied by other running machines. Without fuel, Stardust will not be able to adjust their position by turning the solar panels toward the Sun, and its onboard batteries run out after a few hours. Scientists estimate that under any scenario, passing maneuver and follow the trajectory in the next 100 years, Stardust will not approach the Earth's orbit closer than 2.73 million kilometers, and the orbit of Mars – closer than 20.9 million miles. Probe Stardust («Stardust"), launched in February 1999, became the first in the history of astronomy unit, which brought cometary material: a capsule with samples taken from the comet Wild (81P/Wild 2) in 2004, landed in January 2006. Then the probe is still in working condition, we decided to re-use: February 14, 2011 Stardust flew by comet Tempel 1 (9P/Tempel 1). He, in particular, managed to photograph the dent 400-pound copper ingots at the nucleus of a comet, left in July 2005 by another probe, Deep Impact»(Deep Impact). Over 12 years of flying probe "wound" of about six billion kilometers. Both unique mission – and the first, the delivery of cometary material to Earth, and second, "re-visit" the comet Tempel-1 – NASA has repeatedly called "one hundred percent successful."