NASA's Deep Impact Mission...

[Vega115]

OK, I was looking at the Deep Impact mission, slated for December, (and i put my name in to be put on the spacecraft!) and thought...since the craft is suppose to land on the comet Tempal-1 (i believe), and basically create a crater. Question: How do we know that the spacecraft will slow down enough to land and "create a crater", and not become part of the crater..in form of tiny little peices...rather than start orbiting the comet?

Also...who else signed up to have their name put on the Spacecraft?

[ToSeek]

The spacecraft is in two pieces: one hits the comet, and the other flies past. More information - see the fact sheet.

[Edymnion]

Sounds like a lark. There a link to submit my name with, or is it too late to get in?

[Superluminal]

Go to the Deep Impact home page and find the link "Send your name to a comet". You have until Jan. 31st to get it in.

The cost is only $400,000,000.00.

The disk will most likely be destroyed when the impactor hits the comet at about 5 miles per second. I think they should include a second disk on the flyby craft, since it will go on into solar orbit, where it should remain forever.

[Superluminal]

Also, they are planning on having a contest to name the two spacecraft. No word on when it will start.

[Edymnion]

Link Directly to Signup Page

[Another Phobos]

OK, I was looking at the Deep Impact mission, slated for December, (and i put my name in to be put on the spacecraft!) and thought...since the craft is suppose to land on the comet Tempal-1 (i believe), and basically create a crater. Question: How do we know that the spacecraft will slow down enough to land and "create a crater", and not become part of the crater..in form of tiny little peices...rather than start orbiting the comet?

Also...who else signed up to have their name put on the Spacecraft?

I signed up too.

As mentioned, and as described on the NASA/JPL website, the spacecraft will release an impactor which will slam into the comet and create a crater (destroyed). The spacecraft, safely sitting back several hundred miles, will check out what kind of crater is created and what kind of debris is ejected/exposed.

[Swift]

Its a NASA example of an old geological tool. Take your hammer out and smack it into the sample. High-energy physicists as well as 6 year olds looking at clockworks use similar techniques.

[ToSeek]

Comet Crashing Mission Prepped For Launch

Engineers here at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation are readying NASA’s Deep Impact mission for shipping this month to Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Next stop: Comet Tempel 1.

A NASA Discovery-class spacecraft, the Deep Impact mission features the "Flyby" spacecraft that releases the "Impactor", hardware destined to run into with Comet Tempel 1. The spacecraft pair will give scientists their first close-up look at the interior of a comet.

[ToSeek]

Deep Impact Arrives in Florida

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and will now be prepared for its launch. If everything goes as planned, Deep Impact will lift off on December 30 atop a Delta rocket and then journey towards Comet Tempel 1. Its "impactor" spacecraft will smash into the comet on July 4, 2005, at a speed of 37,000 kph (23,000 mph), blasting out a crater hundreds of metres across. At the same time, its "flyby" spacecraft will record the event so scientists back on Earth can analyze the excavated material and get a better sense of what's inside a comet.

[Evan]

Sure would suck if they miss by a few inches...

[wackywizjr]

Didn't Genesis just complete a deep impact?

[R.A.F.]

Is that your idea of "comedy", wacky?? It's not very funny...maybe if you had left off the smilie...

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

Is that your idea of "comedy", wacky?? It's not very funny...maybe if you had left off the smilie...

Aw, c'mon Guys ...

After all the Fun we had, Talking about Lithographic Breaking?

It was Funny, in a Tragic Sort of Way.

[ToSeek]

Is that your idea of "comedy", wacky?? It's not very funny...maybe if you had left off the smilie...

Aw, c'mon Guys ...

After all the Fun we had, Talking about Lithographic Breaking?

Interesting typo there.

[Doodler]

Is that your idea of "comedy", wacky?? It's not very funny...maybe if you had left off the smilie...

Aw, c'mon Guys ...

After all the Fun we had, Talking about Lithographic Breaking?

Interesting typo there.

I don't see Genesis as a crash, but an ambitious attempt to harvest the largest piece of space dust it could find.

[ToSeek]

Is that your idea of "comedy", wacky?? It's not very funny...maybe if you had left off the smilie...

Aw, c'mon Guys ...

After all the Fun we had, Talking about Lithographic Breaking?

Interesting typo there.

I don't see Genesis as a crash, but an ambitious attempt to harvest the largest piece of space dust it could find.

In the Slashdot discussion of the crash, some wag posted, "The preliminary findings from the Genesis mission show that the Sun is composed largely of dirt."

[wackywizjr]

Is that your idea of "comedy", wacky?? It's not very funny...maybe if you had left off the smilie...

:-?

If we cannot laugh at our mistakes we are doomed to cry over them.

I work for NASA and am very familiar with loss and tragedy. While The Genesis mission was a failure in that it crashed the only true loss was money and time. I would never make jokes about the loss of life that we have seen. Though I have heard many of them, I consider those to be in very bad taste, and a sign of a sick mind [-X .

Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.

[Grand Vizier]

What I don't understand about Deep Impact is that the woo-woos have not started protesting about it, on the basis that there is a danger we will inadvertently alter the comet's orbit so it hits Earth. :wink:

(Of course, another woo-woo faction will argue that it is a desperate attempt to collide the comet with Planet X and prevent that encountering Earth.)

[Kaptain K]

I keep getting a visual of the impactor going straight through the comet, like an arrow through a snowdrift!

[Evan]

Anyone aware that the impactor is actually a 12cm telescope?

[ToSeek]

Anyone aware that the impactor is actually a 12cm telescope?

My first thought was, "Someone must have really hated their TASCO," but it's a real instrument.

[Ilya]

What I don't understand about Deep Impact is that the woo-woos have not started protesting about it, on the basis that there is a danger we will inadvertently alter the comet's orbit so it hits Earth. :wink:

Sshh! Don't give them any ideas!

I keep getting a visual of the impactor going straight through the comet, like an arrow through a snowdrift!

At 10 km/sec, an arrow hitting a snowdrift WOULD make a sizable explosion.

[Grand Vizier]

Anyone know if there are any estimates of the magnitude, from Earth, of the gas/dust cloud the DI will kick up next July? I notice that it will be observable in quite small tetescopes.

[novaderrik]

why does it seem like NASA always tries to have stuff happen around July 4?
is that their way of celebrating Independence day- by making all the engineers come to work on a federal holoday?

[kucharek]

why does it seem like NASA always tries to have stuff happen around July 4?
is that their way of celebrating Independence day- by making all the engineers come to work on a federal holoday?

AFAIK they usually try to avoid weekends and holidays, as this means increased costs. The tour-planning software for Cassini puts these costs into consideration in tour planning and tries to avoid major events happening on holidays.

Harald

[Maksutov]

Deep Impact Launch Delayed-Software and Metallurgical Concerns

An improperly heat treated interstage will need to be replaced. This shouldn't push the mission launch past its Jan 28th deadline.

The term "as built" really brought back some memories. Back in the old manufacturing days for submarine power units, "as-built" reviews were part of every transition from component to subassembly to main assembly to final assembly. Doing the reviews in this manner ensured no faulty component would get too far along in the process and require an expensive tear down/disassembly. But at least here Boeing performed the review before launch

The there's that quote

"In the world of science, this is the astronomical equivalent of a 767 airliner running into a mosquito," said Don Yeomans, a Deep Impact mission scientist.

Sorry, but the "767 airliner running into a..." part made me cringe.

[01101001]

NASA Set to Launch First Comet Impact Probe December 14 press release

"In the world of science, this is the astronomical equivalent of a 767 airliner running into a mosquito," said Don Yeomans, a Deep Impact mission scientist at JPL.

OK... as long as you realize Comet Tempel 1 is the 767 and the impactor is the mosquito.

[Maksutov]

NASA Set to Launch First Comet Impact Probe December 14 press release

"In the world of science, this is the astronomical equivalent of a 767 airliner running into a mosquito," said Don Yeomans, a Deep Impact mission scientist at JPL.

OK... as long as you realize Comet Tempel 1 is the 767 and the impactor is the mosquito.

I knew that after reading the entire quote. But just before I got to the word "mosquito" it caused an unpleasant sensation. That's why I omitted "mosquito" in the quoted section.

BTW, if you've ever seen an electron microscope image of a mosquito's proboscis, you know that they can have "deep impact" too. 8)

[ToSeek]

Cometary Big Dig

The Deep Impact mission will send a large copper projectile crashing into the surface of a comet at more than 20,000 miles per hour, creating a huge crater and revealing never before seen materials and the internal compostion and structure of a comet. The impact will excavate a crater of approximately 100 meters in diameter and 25 meters in depth. Dramatic images from both the flyby spacecraft and the impactor will be sent back to distant Earth in