Reading this question about multiple gravity assists (Why is Voyager 1 faster than all other space probes?), it caused me to wonder if any probes have been redirected to additional (or alternate) destinations other than what was planned when they were launched? I'm not wondering about rovers on a moon/planet, but rather spacecraft themselves.
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7$\begingroup$ Not quite the same thing but related: Akatsuki failed to enter Venus orbit in 2010, but was redirected into an orbit that allowed it to try again in 2015 and it succeeded at that time. Quite a feat of astrodynamics, as every KSP player will tell you. Missing a planetary encounter usually means loss of the mission. $\endgroup$– SF.Commented Jun 3, 2020 at 13:14
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$\begingroup$ Still needs an answer based on the original Hiten story (mentioned in 1, 2, 3) and the AsiaSat 3 story (mentioned in 4, 5, 6) $\endgroup$– uhohCommented Jun 4, 2020 at 0:25
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$\begingroup$ I think the Ulysses spacecraft also saw some comets that they didn't know existed. $\endgroup$– Star ManCommented Jun 6, 2020 at 3:03
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4 Answers
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Back in 1983 the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft (ISEE-3) was diverted, via a very small ∆V and Earth-moon gravity well manipulations, from its Sun-Earth L1 halo orbit to a rendezvous with comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985, summarized in this popular article.
Also related:
answered Jun 3, 2020 at 21:49
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Yes. The primary mission of the New Horizons probe was to do a flyby of Pluto in 2015, after which funding was secured to look for an appropriate Kuiper Belt object to target for another flyby. The probe's maneuvering capability was quite small, so it was challenging to find something near enough to its trajectory that it could divert to, but it performed a flyby of 486958 Arrokoth (aka Ultima Thule) in 2019.
answered Jun 3, 2020 at 3:50
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$\begingroup$ I think you can add more from What's next for New Horizons? and Distance to Proxima Centauri (Gaia VS New Horizons parallax program) $\endgroup$– uhohCommented Jun 4, 2020 at 0:30
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Yes. The THEMIS mission, launched in 2007, was designed as a constellation of five Earth-orbiting satellites in coordinated high earth orbits (with orbital periods of 1 day, 2 days, and 4 days). After the two-year prime mission, the orbits of the two outer probes would have been perturbed away from the regions of scientific interest in the Earth's magnetotail. It was realized that the outer probes had enough propellant remaining to perform a complex series of maneuvers, that would eventually put both of them in lunar orbit, where they continue to operate to this day. Every month, the Moon pulls them through the Earth's far magnetotail, where they can make coordinated observations with the remaining three Earth-orbiting probes, while monitoring the solar wind or the near-lunar environment the remainder of the time.
