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Deep Impact on course for comet collision!
CNN ^ | Jan 12th, 2005

Posted on 01/12/2005 11:21:56 AM PST by missyme

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

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


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To: uncbob

LOL! I'm a practicing hack myself. If I could get out more than every 6 weeks or so, I might have more "luck".


21 posted on 01/12/2005 12:12:04 PM PST by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: trebb

OK TinFoilers! How many of you think there is a metropolis-buster thermonuclear warhead on board to change the path/bust this obviously earth-bound nemesis?

Or with less foil - this missle is part of a test to measure the effectiveness of such a missle for future threats?

Perhaps we will see the impact from earth, indeed.


22 posted on 01/12/2005 12:24:21 PM PST by epluribus_2
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To: epluribus_2
Don't forget the possibility that the missile will impact it in such a way as to change course just enough that it hits us and trashes the planet...

I think we need to start warning folks...

23 posted on 01/12/2005 12:31:23 PM PST by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: missyme
The entire mission costs $330 million, all the way through the grand finale.

What a bargain. Cheap at twice the price.

24 posted on 01/12/2005 12:32:13 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (>The government of our country was meant to be a servant of the people, not a master.)
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To: uncbob
I have a cousin who is one of those dastardly course designers.
I'll be sure to tell him his efforts to make you crazy are working.
(I almost said "drive" you crazy, but didn't want to putter around.)
25 posted on 01/12/2005 12:42:31 PM PST by ASA Vet (FreeRepublic needs a science forum.)
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To: missyme

What in the Hell did that comet do to us? Wait till P.E.T.C.
Hears about this.


26 posted on 01/12/2005 1:01:12 PM PST by al baby (she stuned my little beeber)
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bumpity impact


27 posted on 07/01/2005 10:19:43 PM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: Mamzelle

Bump for later.


28 posted on 07/01/2005 10:21:53 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Mamzelle

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/press/050701nasa.html

July 1, 2005

NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft Preps for July 4 Fireworks

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft continues to sail through its final checkout, as it hurtles toward comet Tempel 1. Impact with the comet is scheduled for 1:52 a.m. EDT, July 4 (10:52 p.m. PDT, July 3).

"The time of comet encounter is near and the major mission milestones are getting closer and closer together," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "After all the years of design, training and simulations, we are where we want to be. The flight and science teams are working the mission plan, and we are good to go for encounter."

Deep Impact consists of a subcompact-car-sized flyby spacecraft and an impactor, about the size of a washing machine. The dual spacecraft carry three imaging instruments, two on the flyby and one on the impactor.

Several major mission milestones occurred during the past week. The mission's third trajectory correction maneuver was successfully executed on June 23. The burn of the spacecraft's motors changed Deep Impact's speed by 13 miles per hour. Another trajectory correction for final targeting before impactor release is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. EDT July 2 (5:00 p.m. PDT).

Mission planners separated the spacecraft's flight operations into six mission phases. The phases are launch, commissioning, cruise, approach, encounter and playback. The five-day encounter phase incorporates the final approach to the comet and transmission to Earth of collected data.

"We've completed the final pre-release checkout of the impactor. The impactor probe will have a short, 24 hour life from release to impact, but an incredibly important role," said Dave Spencer, Deep Impact mission manager at JPL.

The impactor has an auto-navigation system that will make final corrections to its flight path just minutes before the scheduled collision. Scientists hope the resulting crater will expose fresh material from below the comet's surface and subsurface.

"That is the whole point of Deep Impact," said mission principal investigator and University of Maryland astronomer Dr. Michael A'Hearn. "We want to find out what are the guts of a comet."

The flyby spacecraft will use medium and high resolution imagers and an infrared spectrometer to collect and send to Earth pictures and spectra of the event. Spaceborne science platforms will also be watching Deep Impact. These include NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Swift and Submillimeter Wave Astronomy satellites, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and Rosetta spacecraft. Observatories on Earth will view the impact and its aftermath.

The final prelude to impact begins early on July 3 EDT (July 2 PDT), when the flyby spacecraft releases the impactor into the path of the onrushing comet. The release is scheduled at 1:52 a.m. EDT, 24 hours before impact (10:52 p.m. PDT).

The 820-pound impactor will collide with the comet's nucleus at a closing speed of 37,000 kilometers per hour (23,000 miles per hour). Scientists expect the impact to create a large crater. The impact will eject ice, dust and gas from the crater and reveal the pristine material beneath. The impact will have no significant effect on the comet's orbit, which poses no threat to Earth.

The University of Maryland, College Park, conducts overall mission science for Deep Impact. JPL handles project management and mission operations.

For information about Deep Impact on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact


29 posted on 07/01/2005 10:25:52 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido
Artist's concept of comet. NASA/JPL-Caltech.


30 posted on 07/01/2005 10:26:46 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: missyme

Very cool.


31 posted on 07/01/2005 10:36:15 PM PDT by SeeRushToldU_So (If you jog in a jogging suit, lounge in lounging pajamas,WHY would anyone want to wear a windbreaker)
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To: RadioAstronomer

*beam*--it's nice to have a dog in this hunt. Wow!


32 posted on 07/02/2005 7:47:29 AM PDT by Mamzelle
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To: Mamzelle
*beam*--it's nice to have a dog in this hunt. Wow!

Thanks. :-)

Sorry for taking so long, this post got lost in all the pings. Sigh.

33 posted on 07/06/2005 8:25:51 AM PDT by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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