[meteorite-list] Comet Show Leaves NASA Speechless

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jul 5 23:20:54 2005
Message-ID: <42CB4DF1.A4201420_at_bhil.com>

Hi,

    The first thing, of course, one feels is such happiness for the complete
success of the mission and anticipation for results as they unfold.

    The second thought, a day later, is the beauty of the SYNERGY that becomes
possible as the human capacity for investigation slowly grows. Looking at all
the posts (Thanks, Ron!) about the co-observations of the event, in a range of
spectral modes, from the mission craft to the impactor craft, from telescopes
on the surface of our planet to ones off our planet, you can see the dim notion
of a Space System or Network emerging.

    Of course, the "piggy-backed" mission, like Casinni-Huygens and to a degree
the two-parted Deep Impact itself is a step forward. Wouldn't it wonderful if
there were enough Mars missions going all at once for coordinated observations
accomplishing what no single mission could and if they were conceived from the
outset to do so? To a limited degree, that too is emerging.

    The coordination we see now is largely fortuitous. Think what we could do
if it were intentional, planned, coordinated in concept, as well. The Deep
Space Network. The Mars Network. A lot of others come to mind.

    A mother ship to the Asteroid Zone, carrying not one but a good number of
expendable 500 kg fly-by or even orbiting imagers targeted on Ceres, Juno,
Vesta. and more big or unique bodies, the mother ship releasing them each at
the best time and place for the probe's easiest rendezvous with target, course
correction, course correction, another release, with the images relayed to
mother ship to us. You might lose one, but there are so many. The mother ship
remains in the Zone with its big long-range imager, sending back, followed much
later by a second mother ship with more (and newly targeted) probes, that ends
up working in coordination with the first mother ship, each with differing
secondary instrumentation, acting as The Asteroidal Observatory.

    A planetary network mission to Jupiter, launched in timed stages, a mother
ship with an Io orbiter/lander and a Ganymede orbiter/lander, another mother
ship with an Europa orbiter/lander/drill platform with sample return to a third
mother ship. The first two mother ships with identical main optical
instrumentation, but different secondary instrumentation, and the ability of
the two to work together on the Jupiter system and the planet itself and with
the ability to "safe sleep" if a step fails or is delayed or to extend the life
of the mission, the third mother ship with more fuel and less payload capacity
but the ability to return the Europa samples (from the sea under the ice). If
(or finally when) a mother ship fails, it is replaced with another, carrying
the Calisto orbiter/lander and a second lander for whichever satellite seems to
deserve it most (or to replace a failed lander). Flexible complexity.

    A series of Venus orbiters with differing but coordinatible
instrumentation, each carrying a differing concept of a durable lander (nobody
knows what will survive), launched in sequences slow enough that the knowledge
gained from a lander's success or failure can be incorporated into an upcoming
lander (not the next one, the one after that), each orbiter working with the
other orbiters in coordination, each adding additional capabilities. Not doing
more with less but doing MUCH more with SOME more and flexible complexity.
Turning a long sequential mission into a permanent mission.

    Yes, I know, there's the future for that... Is anybody even thinking about
how to make a durable lander for Venus since the last try burned up decades
ago? Is anybosy even studying missions like the ones above?

    Not complaining, just wishing. I know the obstacles. But I'm tired of We Go
Back To _____ stories. I want to see We're Here To Stay At ______ stories!


Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------

Ron Baalke wrote:

> http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-deepimpact5jul05,1,4288858.story
>
> Comet Show Leaves NASA Speechless
>
> The debris field kicked up by the collision is so large, it will take
> days to glean a clear image.
>
> By Thomas H. Maugh II
> Los Angeles Times
> July 5, 2005
>
> The collision of a probe from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft with comet
> Tempel 1 blew a plume of debris thousands of miles into space and
> provided a spectacular first glimpse of the insides of a comet - ancient
> bodies that may hold the key to the origins of the solar system -
> scientists said Monday.
>
> The collision - a carefully orchestrated dance at more than 20,000 mph
> intended to expose the comet's interior - was much larger than anyone
> had expected, said researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La
> Ca?ada Flintridge.
>
> Telescopes on Earth showed that the light from the comet increased
> fivefold in the aftermath of the collision at 10:52 p.m. PDT Sunday
> before slowly fading over several hours.
>
> "I was trying to think how to describe this, but I am just plain
> speechless," said Andrew Dantzler, the director of NASA's solar system
> program.
>
> The eruption of debris from the impact was so large that principal
> investigator Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland said it could
> take scientists a week or more to tease out a reliable image of the
> impact crater from behind the smokescreen of dust and gas that obscured
> the comet's surface.
>
> By Monday morning, project scientists had had little time to analyze the
> information and images that were flooding into their databanks, but what
> they saw was drawing back the veil from the composition and structure of
> comets.
>
> The high-resolution images taken before the impact show a comet surface
> substantially different from that of previously observed comets, such as
> Borrelly and Wild-2. Although the surface appears white because of
> reflected sunlight, it is actually jet-black. Small bright patches on
> the surface are most likely steep slopes that reflect more sunlight than
> the surrounding landscape.
>
> The surface of Tempel 1 is littered with what appear to be impact
> craters - the first time such craters have been observed on a comet
> surface, A'Hearn said.
>
> There is also a large, flat area that curves around the surface of the
> nucleus. The only flat area previously observed was a plateau on Borrelly.
>
> "We don't understand the physics of what produces those flat surfaces,"
> A'Hearn said. Tempel 1's "orbital history is very similar to Borrelly's,
> but the surface looks totally different."
>
> The impact surprised researchers in both its magnitude and its
> structure. The sequence of images from the Deep Impact mother ship shows
> a small flash, a slight delay and then a larger flash, said Peter
> Schultz of Brown University, a project co-investigator.
>
> That suggests that the 820-pound impactor, which struck the surface of
> the comet at a speed of 6.3 miles per second, burrowed into a powdery
> layer in the nucleus before encountering a solid surface of ice or rock
> below it, Schultz said.
>
> "We are getting an enormous wealth of data even though we can't yet see
> the actual impact point," he said.
>
> Late Monday, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and
> University College London said ultraviolet observations from NASA's
> Swift satellite showed that the impactor struck a solid structure
> beneath the powdery surface layer.
>
> Although researchers are analyzing the spectra, "We don't know exactly
> what we kicked up yet," said astronomer Keith Mason of University
> College London.
>
> Images of the impact taken by the mother ship clearly show the shadow of
> the debris column spreading across the surface of the nucleus.
>
> Initial imaging with Deep Impact's infrared spectrometer also showed big
> changes in the composition of the comet's corona as the debris from the
> impact was ejected, Mason said.
>
> There are several unidentified materials in the spectra, strong evidence
> that the interior of the comet is different from the surface, he said.
>
> Telescopes on the ground reported changes in the abundance of gases
> observed in the comet's corona, especially a large increase in water vapor.
>
> Researchers believe that comets represent a kind of time capsule of the
> materials that were present when the solar system was created 4.6
> million years ago.
>
Received on Tue 05 Jul 2005 11:20:17 PM PDT