Jacques Cousteau the Ninth

We release from Ganymede station and begin our multi-year fall toward the Sun. We have inserted ourselves into an ellipse that, as we pass into the orbits of the inner planets, will begin to closely shadow a different orbit. Comet Corvallis B1 has entered the solar system and will take a path that dives inside the orbit of Venus before swinging back out again. It’s relatively massive and high in water content, and it is likely that its coma will yield a magnificent spectacle as seen from earth, possibly even visible during daylight hours. There will be considerable human interest in this comet.

This is why we are here. The mission of _Calypso_: to dive in close to the comet, take readings and measurements, document, understand. Also, to deploy instrumentation that will send additional data back to earth as the comet sweeps back out into the Oort Cloud. But, most importantly, we are here to educate. Our observations from the first manned cometary mission will help humankind grasp our newest discovery regarding these infrequent visitors to our part of the solar system – namely, that comets are living beings that have come here to spawn.

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