[meteorite-list] crusing for a brusing

From: Greg Redfern <gredfern_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Mar 31 08:07:39 2005
Message-ID: <000701c535f2$a10da170$110110ac_at_DHRYBX21>

Hi Darren, List,

   The DI Team is investigating the cause, potential fixes and impact (no
pun intended) on the mission as a result of the current inability to achieve
perfect focus in the High Resolution Instrument.

  With the Medium Resolution Instruments (MRI) as well as the current
spatial resolution of the HRI, it is expected that we will still receive the
most detailed images to date of a comet.

  The good news is that this in no way keeps DI from impacting the comet
which is the heart of the mission. With the MRI and the battery of ground
and space based telescopes we will get good data.

  Keep checking the DI website for updates.

All the best,

Greg

Greg Redfern
JPL NASA Solar System Ambassador
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/index.html
International Meteorite Collectors Association #5781
http://www.imca.cc
Member Meteoritical Society
http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Darren
Garrison
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 12:06 AM
To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] crusing for a brusing

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 23:38:16 -0500, "Greg Redfern" <gredfern_at_earthlink.net>
wrote:


>DI will give us data to determine these physical characteristics PLUS see
>inside a cometary body for the first time in history. We have seen the

At least, you hope:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050328/deepimpact.html

Comet Smasher Has Cloudy Vision
By Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News

March 28, 2005 - Engineers are considering options to restore or work around
a problem with a
high-resolution telescope on NASA's comet-smashing Deep Impact probe.

The spacecraft, which was launched Jan. 12, is on track to encounter its
target, Comet Tempel 1, on
July 4.

Deep Impact, as its name implies, will release a copper-tipped projectile
into the path of the
comet.

Flying through space at 23,000 mph, the comet is expected to strike the
coffee-table sized impactor
with the force of 4 1/2 tons of dynamite, in the process carving out a hole
in its body that could
be as large as a stadium.

Scientists are eager to study the inside of a comet for more clues about how
our solar system
formed. Comets not only contain original materials from the birth of the
solar system 4.5 billion
years ago; they also are believed to have played a vital role in nurturing
Earth by delivering water
and organic matter.

On Friday, however, the space agency had more immediate concerns. An
investigative team has been
named to try to come up with options for restoring Deep Impact's High
Resolution Imager to perfect
focus.

For weeks, spacecraft operators have been trying to bake out residual
moisture from the telescope's
barrel, but those attempts have not worked.

"We are very early in the process of examining the data from all the
instruments," said Deep Impact
lead scientist Michael A'Hearn, with the University of Maryland in College
Park.

"Even if the spatial resolution of the High Resolution Imager remains at
present levels, we still
expect to obtain the best, most detailed pictures of a comet ever taken."

Added project manager Rick Grammier, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif.,
"This in no way will affect our ability to impact the comet."

Engineers believe the moisture seeped into the telescope during the final
hours before launch from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and during the rocket ride
through the atmosphere.

After allowing the telescope to heat up, the Deep Impact team took test
pictures, but the images
indicate the instrument has not reached perfect focus, NASA said in a
statement.

The High Resolution Instrument includes both a camera and an infrared
spectrometer. The spacecraft
also has a Medium Resolution Instrument and a duplicate camera on the
impactor, which will record
and radio data until it is run over by the comet.

Both the Medium Resolution Instrument and the sensors on the impactor are
working as expected, NASA
said.
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Received on Thu 31 Mar 2005 08:07:44 AM PST