[meteorite-list] Your Name Could Make a 'Deep Impact' on a Comet

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:37 2004
Message-ID: <200305090440.VAA22096_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle (818) 393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
 
Donald Savage (202) 358-1727
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
                                          
Lee Tune (301) 405-4679
University of Maryland, College Park

News Release: 2003-070 May 8, 2003

Your Name Could Make a 'Deep Impact' on a Comet

People worldwide may celebrate July 4, 2005, as the day their names
reach a comet. NASA is launching a campaign to send hundreds of
thousands of names to comet Tempel 1.

The names will be carried on board NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, the
first deep-space mission designed to really reach out and touch a
comet. Mission scientists are confident an impact on a comet's nucleus
will answer basic questions about the nature and composition of these
celestial wanderers.

"This is an opportunity to become part of an extraordinary space
mission," said Dr. Don Yeomans, an astronomer at JPL and a member of
Deep Impact's science team. "When the craft is launched in December
2004, yours and the names of your loved-ones can hitch along for the
ride and be part of what may be the best space fireworks show in
history."
 
Deep Impact's larger flyby spacecraft will carry a smaller impactor
spacecraft to Tempel 1 for release into the comet's path for a planned
collision. The flyby spacecraft will take pictures as the 370-kilogram
(816 pound) copper-tipped impactor plunges into Tempel 1 at about
37,000 kilometers (22,990 miles) per hour. The impactor is expected to
make a spectacular, football field-sized crater, seven to 15 stories
deep, in the speeding comet. Carried aboard the impactor will be a
standard mini-CD containing the names of comet, space and other
enthusiasts from around the world.

"This campaign will allow people from around the world to become
directly involved with Deep Impact and through that get them thinking
about the scientific reasons for the mission," said University of
Maryland astronomy professor Dr. Michael A'Hearn, Deep Impact's
principal investigator. "We particularly hope to capture the interest
of young students, as they will become the explorers of the next
generation."

People may submit their names for this historic one-way mission by
visiting NASA's Deep Impact Web site, now through February 2004, at
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

The collision between the impactor and Tempel 1 is not forceful enough
to make an appreciable change in the comet's orbital path around the
Sun. The comet poses no threat to Earth.

Deep Impact was selected in 1999 as a NASA Discovery mission. The goal
of the Discovery Program is to launch many smaller missions with fast
development times, each for a fraction of the cost of NASA's larger
missions. The main objective is to enhance our understanding of the
solar system by exploring the planets, their moons, and small bodies,
such as comets and asteroids.
 
The University of Maryland in College Park is the home of Deep
Impact's principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn, who oversees
scientific investigations. Project manager, John McNamee, from JPL,
manages and operates the Deep Impact mission for NASA's Office of
Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is managed for NASA by the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colo., manages spacecraft
development.

More information about the Deep Impact mission is available on the
Internet at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/ or
http://deepimpact.umd.edu .

For information about NASA and other space flight missions on the
Internet, visit http://www.nasa.gov .

-end-
Received on Fri 09 May 2003 12:40:17 AM PDT