Deep Impact

[Bob B.]

Deep Impact on course for comet collision

NASA rocket with probe launches

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- A NASA spacecraft with a Hollywood name -- Deep Impact -- blasted off Wednesday on a mission to smash a hole in a comet and give scientists a glimpse at the frozen primordial ingredients of the solar system.

With a launch window only one second long, Deep Impact rocketed away at the designated moment on a six-month, 268 million-mile journey to Comet Tempel 1. It will be a one-way trip that NASA hopes will reach a cataclysmic end on the Fourth of July.

Scientists are counting on Deep Impact to carve out a crater that could swallow the Roman Coliseum. It will be humanity's first look into the heart of a comet, a celestial snowball still preserving the original building blocks of the sun and the planets.

Because of the relative speed of the two objects at the moment of impact -- 23,000 mph -- no explosives are needed for the job. The force of the smashup will be equivalent to 41/2 tons of TNT, creating a flash that just might be visible in the dark sky by the naked eye in one spectacular Fourth of July fireworks display.

Nothing like this has ever been attempted before.

"The most difficult and most challenging part is going to be the actual encounter because we're doing things that nobody has done before," said Jay Melosh, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona.

Little is known about Comet Tempel 1, other than that it is an icy, rocky body about nine miles long and three miles wide. Scientists do not know whether the crust will be as hard as concrete or as flimsy as corn flakes.

"One of the scary things is that we won't actually know the shape and what it looks like until after we do the encounter," Melosh said.

The comet will be more than 80 million miles from Earth when the collision takes place. The resulting crater is expected to be anywhere from two to 14 stories deep, and perhaps 300 feet in diameter.

A jagged, cratered comet like the one headed for Earth in the 1998 movie "Deep Impact" would be difficult if not impossible to hit because of all the shadows, Melosh said. Comet Tempel 1 is believed to be smoother and easier to hit.

The scientists came up with the Deep Impact name independently of the movie studio, around the same time, neither knowing the other was choosing it, even though some members of NASA's Deep Impact team were consultants on the picture.

Deep Impact is carrying the most powerful telescope ever sent into deep space. It will remain with the mothership when the impactor springs free the day before the comet strike, and will observe the event from a safe 300 miles away. NASA space telescopes like the Hubble will view the collision, along with ground observatories and amateur astronomers.

The entire mission costs $330 million, all the way through the grand finale.


Source: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/01/12/deep.impact.ap/index.html

[LunarOrbit]

I saw the launch this afternoon right before I left for work. Thanks for posting about it, Bob. I was going to but I just didn't have enough time to write anything.

[Satanic Mechanic]

Missed the launch.  Three years ago NASA had a thing where you can put your name on the craft.  Myself and 200,000 people got their names on the craft.  Nothing like galactic graffiti.

[LunarOrbit]

I put my name on something a few years ago, but I don't remember what it was. It could have been Deep Impact, but I'm not sure.

[Ottawan]

Same here Kel. I believe you and I did that at roughly the same time.

[LunarOrbit]

Is there an online list of the names?

[Bob B.]

Is there an online list of the names?

Here's a Web page about it:

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/

There is no list of names but you can do a search.

[LunarOrbit]

There were two listings for my name, one on May 20, 2003 and the other on January 29, 2004. I'm not sure if either one (or both) is actually me but at least my name is on it anyway.  

[LunarOrbit]

DEEP IMPACT SPACECRAFT STATUS REPORT

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is out of safe mode, healthy and on its way to an encounter with comet Tempel 1 on July 4.

Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday, the Deep Impact spacecraft entered a state called "safe mode" soon after entering orbit. When a spacecraft enters safe mode, all but essential spacecraft systems are turned off until it receives new commands from mission control. When Deep Impact separated from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft's computer detected temperatures higher than expected
in the propulsion system.

While in the safe mode, the spacecraft successfully executed all mission events associated with commencing space flight operations.

Data received from the spacecraft indicate it has deployed and locked its solar panels, is receiving power and has achieved proper orientation in space.

"We are out of safe mode and proceeding with in-flight operations," said Deep Impact project manager Rick Grammier of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We're back on a nominal timeline and look forward to our encounter with comet Tempel 1 this summer."

Deep Impact consists of two parts: a "fly-by" spacecraft and a smaller "impactor." The impactor will be released into the comet's path for a planned collision on July 4. The crater produced by the impactor may as large as a football stadium and two to 14 stories deep. Ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater, revealing the material beneath.

The fly-by spacecraft will observe the effects of the collision. NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, along with other telescopes on Earth, will also observe the collision.

Comets are time capsules that hold clues about the formation and evolution of the Solar System. They are composed of ice, gas and dust, primitive debris from the Solar System's distant and coldest regions that formed 4.5 billion years ago.

The management of the Deep Impact launch was the responsibility of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Deep Impact was launched from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Delta II launch service was provided by Boeing Expendable Launch Systems of Huntington Beach, Calif. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colo. Deep Impact project management is overseen by JPL.

For more information about the mission on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/

[Ottawan]

from Space.com via CNN . . .

Deep Impact