[meteorite-list] Deep Impact Kicks Off Fourth of July with Deep Space Fireworks

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 4 05:23:26 2005
Message-ID: <00c901c5807a$06736b40$47578b90_at_mandin4f89ypwu>

Congratulations to NASA, JPL and the University of Maryland on a fantastic
result. I can't wait to see what data will come back.

Unfortunately it is completely clouded over here in Melbourne, Australia so
there won't be any Comet viewing tonight. ;-(

Congrats again,

Jeff Kuyken
I.M.C.A. #3085
www.meteorites.com.au


----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Baalke
To: Meteorite Mailing List
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 7:00 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Deep Impact Kicks Off Fourth of July with
DeepSpace Fireworks




Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington July 4, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/393-9011)

Lee Tune
University of Maryland, College Park
(Phone: 301/405-4679)

RELEASE: 05-250

DEEP IMPACT KICKS OFF FOURTH OF JULY WITH DEEP SPACE FIREWORKS

After 172 days and 268 million miles of deep space stalking, Deep
Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The
collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet
occurred at 1:52 am EDT.

"What a way to kick off America's Independence Day," said Deep Impact
project manager Rick Grammier of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. "The challenges of this mission and teamwork that went
into making it a success, should make all of us very proud."

"This mission is truly a smashing success," said Andy Dantzler,
director of NASA's Solar System Division. "Tomorrow and in the days
ahead we will know a lot more about the origins of our solar system."

Official word of the impact came 5 minutes after impact when, at 1:57
am EDT, an image from the spacecraft's medium resolution camera was
downlinked to the computer screens of the mission's science team showed
the tell-tale signs of a high-speed impact.

"The image clearly shows a spectacular impact," said Deep Impact
principal investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn of the University of
Maryland, College Park. "With this much data we have a long night ahead
of us, but that is what we were hoping for. There is so much here it is
difficult to know where to begin."

The celestial collision and ensuing data collection by the nearby Deep
Impact mothership was the climax of a very active 24 hour period for
the mission which began with impactor release at 2:07 am EDT on July 3.
Deep space maneuvers by the flyby, final checkout of both spacecraft
and comet imaging took up most of the next 22 hours. Then, the impactor
got down to its last two hours of life.

"The impactor kicked into its autonomous navigation mode right on
time," said Deep Impact navigator Shyam Bhaskaran, of JPL. "Our
preliminary analysis indicates the three impactor targeting maneuvers
occurred on time at 90, 35 and 12.5 minutes before impact."

At the moment the impactor was vaporizing itself in its 6.3 miles a
second collision with comet Tempel 1, the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft
was monitoring events from nearby and will continue to do so for the
next several days.

"The flyby surviving closest approach and shield mode has put the cap
on an outstanding day," said Grammier. "Soon, we will begin the process
of downlinking all the encounter information in one batch and hand it
to the science team."

Deep Impact will provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet,
where material from the solar system's formation remains relatively
unchanged. Mission scientists expect the project will answer basic
questions about the formation of the solar system, by offering a better
look at the nature and composition of the frozen celestial travelers
known as comets.

The University of Maryland is responsible for overall Deep Impact
mission science, and project management is handled by JPL. The
spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corporation, Boulder, Colo.

For information about Deep Impact on the Internet, visit:

www.nasa.gov/deepimpact

-end-

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Received on Mon 04 Jul 2005 05:23:18 AM PDT