"Projects and Actions"
Sent by a respected, anonymous investigator... FRJ
Comet Crashing Mission Prepped For Launch
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 08 October 2004
09:02 pm ET
BOULDER, COLORADO -- Engineers here at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation are
readying NASA’s Deep Impact mission for shipping this month to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Next stop: Comet Tempel 1.
A NASA Discovery-class spacecraft, the Deep Impact mission features the "Flyby" spacecraft that
releases the "Impactor", hardware destined to run into with Comet Tempel 1. The spacecraft pair will
give scientists their first close-up look at the interior of a comet.
Both Deep Impact spacecraft have completed the final environmental testing phase, a key step before
liftoff of the mission this coming December. The two Deep Impact spacecraft have undergone
extensive thermal vacuum, electromagnetic conductance, electromagnetic interference, vibration and
acoustic testing.
Cosmic rear-ender
Objective of the mission is to study the pristine interior of a comet by excavating a huge crater in
Comet Tempel 1.
Once set free from the Flyby spacecraft, the Impactor may form a football stadium-sized crater in the
comet that could be as deep as 14-stories.
This cosmic rear-ender comes on America’s Independence Day: July 4, 2005.
The Impactor spacecraft will be vaporized upon impact with the comet. Both comet and spacecraft
will be traveling at closing speeds in excess of 23,000 miles per hour upon impact.
Witness to the impact
Deep Impact’s telescopes, cameras and spectrometer aboard the Flyby spacecraft will witness the
impact and return data on the pristine material in the crater and the material ejected by the impact.
The High Resolution Imager aboard the Flyby spacecraft will be one of the largest interplanetary
telescopes ever flown in order to record the details of the collision.
Meanwhile, the Impactor spacecraft will also provide close-encounter photos of the comet just prior to
impact, giving scientists the most complete view of a comet to date.
Getting a first view of pristine material inside a comet should prove invaluable to the scientific
community.
Archeological dig
In a very real sense, the Deep Impact mission is an archeological dig.
Comets contain, in a frozen, well-preserved environment, the interstellar materials that were present
at the time our solar system was formed. Comets are thought to have brought the organic materials
necessary for life to develop on Earth.
The surface of comets is unknown and could range from a hard, icy crust to thin and fragile ice held
together by gases or liquid. Deep Impact is the first mission to make contact with a comet’s surface,
but instead of landing a spacecraft on Tempel 1, the spacecraft will make a small "dent" in the large
comet to reveal what is underneath the black, icy surface.
Deep Impact’s principal investigator is Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland. The project
has been underway since late 1999.
Ground observing parties
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, in association with the University of Maryland and the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is developing and integrating the Flyby spacecraft, the Impactor
spacecraft, and science instruments, including two telescopes, two cameras and a spectrometer for
analyzing the interior of the comet.
"There is a great deal of activity on the Deep Impact project these days and the project team is hard at
work to track it all," reports Lucy McFadden, Deep Impact science team co-investigator at the
University of Maryland.
A select number of ground-based telescopes will observe the Deep Impact encounter in July 2005, she
added, and those observations will place Deep Impact mission data in perspective.
Deep Impact is the eighth mission in NASA’s Discovery Program, and the first mission to ever
attempt impact with a comet nucleus in an effort to probe beneath its surface.
This smacks of possible military implications... FRJ
October 8
U.S. Air Force Unveils New Space Badge
The Air Force Space Command has taken the wraps off its new space badge, designed to be worn by
both space and missile operations professionals.
The new badge also replaces the missile operations occupational badge, more commonly known as
“the pocket rocket,” currently worn by those in the missile operations career fields.
“Just as pilots wear the same badge, whether they fly fighters, bombers, tankers or transports, all very
distinct and different missions, our space professionals should wear the same badge to reflect the unity
of their mission and capabilities,” said General Lance Lord, commander of the Air Force Space
Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.
New U.S. Air Force Space Badge
The badge was unveiled October 7 at the Strategic Space 2004 Convention in Omaha, Nebraska. The
emblem still needs to be processed through the Air Force uniform board, Institute of Heraldry and be
mass-produced by the manufacturers.
No date has been set for mandatory wear.
-- Leonard David
October 7
Asteroids Named After Mars Rovers
Astronomers have named an asteroid for each of NASA's Mars rovers to commemorate the work the
robots have done on the red planet since January.
The space rock catalogued as 37452 has been named Spirit. Asteroid 39382 is now called Opportunity.
Thousands more asteroids have been discovered than are named. The naming process involves a
review for appropriateness by the International Astronomical Union's Committee for Small Body
Nomenclature, which tries to strike a balance between being official and not getting too serious.
Many of the named asteroids commemorate cultural icons and politicians (the latter must be dead to
be considered, according to the somewhat loose rules). Others are common people and places. The
names run the gamut from serious to whimsical. The growing list includes Ellington and Fitzgerald,
Mozart and each of the Beatles, Zappafrank, Hemingway, Freud, DiMaggio, Intel and Linux (but not
Microsoft), Barbara and Jo-Ann, America and Innsbruck, Racquetball, Soyuz-Apollo and Einstein.
(See if you're there)
In 2001, three asteroids were given the names Compassion, Solidarity and Magnanimity in memory
of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Seven asteroids were named for the astronauts who died
in the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
The new Spirited space rock orbits the Sun well beyond Mars, even inching slightly beyond the path
of Jupiter on its elliptical trajectory. Opportunity rocks around the Sun on a slightly tighter course
that is wholly inside the path of Jupiter.
The names were announced late last month by the Minor Planet Center, which keeps track of all
asteroid discoveries. The rovers, you might recall, were named by 9-year-old Sofi Collis , who
submitted her choices in a contest.
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