"Just like in Star Trek we have our shields up," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "The spacecraft has entered Wild 2's coma, which means at any time we could run into a cometary particle. At 6.1 kilometers per second (approximately 3.8 miles per second), this is no small event."

To protect Stardust against the blast of expected particles and rocks as it travels approximately 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Wild 2 nucleus, the spacecraft rotated, so it is flying in the shadow of its "Whipple Shields". The shields are named for American astronomer Dr. Fred L. Whipple. In the 1950s, he came up with the idea of shielding spacecraft from high-speed collisions with bits and pieces ejected from comets.

The system includes two bumpers at the front of the spacecraft, which protect Stardust's solar panels, and another shield protecting the main spacecraft body. Each of the shields is built around composite panels designed to disperse particles as they impact. Blankets of Nextel ceramic cloth that dissipates and spreads debris augment them.

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