MolaKule
Staff member
From BNNquote:
Deep Impact spots its target
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft – launched Jan. 12 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket – last week photographed comet Tempel 1 from a distance of 64 million kilometers (39.7 million miles). The photo, the first of many the spacecraft will take of the comet over the next 10 weeks, will aid Deep Impact's navigators, engineers and scientists as they plot their final trajectory toward a July 4 collision.
"It is great to get a first glimpse at the comet from our spacecraft," said Deep Impact Principal Investigator Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, College Park. "With daily observations beginning in May, Tempel 1 will become noticeably more impressive as we continue to close the gap between spacecraft and comet. What is now little more than a few pixels across will evolve by July 4 into the best, most detailed images of a comet ever taken."
The ball of dirty ice and rock was detected April 25 by Deep Impact's medium-resolution instrument on its very first attempt. While making the detection, the spacecraft's camera saw stars as dim as 11th visual magnitude, more than 100 times dimmer than a human eye can see on a clear night.
"This is the first of literally thousands of images we will take of Tempel 1 for both science and navigational purposes," said Deputy Program Manager Keyur Patel at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Our goal is to impact a one-meter long (39-inch) spacecraft into about a 6.5-kilometer wide (4-mile) comet that is bearing down on it at 10.2 kilometers per second (6.3 miles per second), while both are 133.6 million kilometers (83 million miles) away from Earth. Finding the comet as early and as far away as we did is a definite aid to our navigation."
Previous Background Article:
quote:
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 12, 2005 — A Boeing [NYSE: BA] Delta II rocket launched a NASA spacecraft today that will collide with a comet, causing a crater that will enable scientists to learn more about comets and their role in the formation of the Universe.
The "Deep Impact" spacecraft was launched by a Delta II 7925-9.5 launch vehicle. Lift-off occurred at 1:47:08 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 17B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
The flight lasted approximately 34-minutes, placing Deep Impact into a trajectory path with the comet "Tempel 1."
Deep Impact will release a projectile or "impactor" that will collide with Tempel 1 in July 2005. The impactor has an autonomous guidance system, propulsion system and onboard cameras to keep it on course after its release from the mother ship, that will fly by Tempel 1 to take images of the comet after impact.
"What a great way to start our year off with a bang," said Dan Collins, vice president, Boeing Expendable Launch Systems. "This exciting mission will reveal more information about how the Universe was formed."
Deep Impact's impactor measures one-meter in diameter, 0.8-meters tall and weighs approximately 370 kg. It will hit Tempel 1, leaving a crater somewhere between the size of a house and a football stadium, and approximately two-to 14-stories deep. Post-impact debris, such as dust and gases, and the interior of the crater will also be observed by the Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra telescopes as well as by telescopes on Earth. This is the first time that researchers will be able to study a comet's interior.
The Delta II vehicle that launched Deep Impact used a Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine, nine Alliant Techsystems solid rocket boosters, an Aerojet AJ10-118K second-stage engine, a Thiokol Star 48B third-stage motor, and a nine-and-a-half-foot diameter payload fairing.
The next Delta launch is the NOAA-N mission for NASA aboard a Delta II rocket planned for March from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis , Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $27 billion business. It provides network-centric system solutions to its global military, government, and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems; the world's largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world's largest satellite manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense and Department of Homeland Security; NASA's largest contractor; and a global leader in launch services.
