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Posted by Larry Huntley on July 4, 2005, 2:58 am
Please log in for more thread options stepped up to the podium, tapped the forlorn-looking SM57, asked "Is this
thing on?" and, in sci.astro, message
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-108
>
> DC Agle (818) 393-9011
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
>
> Dolores Beasley (202) 358-1753
> NASA Headquarters, Washington
>
> Lee Tune (301) 405-4679
> University of Maryland, College Park
>
> 2005-108
>
> Deep Impact Status Report
> July 03, 2005
>
> One hundred and seventy-one days into its 172-day journey to comet
> Tempel 1, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft successfully released its
> impactor at 11:07 p.m. Saturday, Pacific Daylight Time (2:07 a.m.
> Sunday, Eastern Daylight Time).
>
> At release, the impactor was about 880,000 kilometers (547,000 miles)
> away from its quarry. The separation of flyby spacecraft and the
> washing-machine-sized, copper-fortified impactor is one in a series
> of important mission milestones that will cap off with a planned
> encounter with the comet at 10:52 p.m. Sunday, PDT (1:52 a.m. on
> July 4, EDT).
>
> Six hours prior to impactor release, the Deep Impact spacecraft
> successfully performed its fourth trajectory correction maneuver. The
> 30-second burn changed the spacecraft's velocity by about one kilometer
>
> per hour (less than one mile per hour). The goal of the burn is to
> place the impactor as close as possible to the direct path of
> onrushing comet Tempel 1.
>
> Soon after the trajectory maneuver was completed, the impactor
> engineers began the final steps that would lead to it being ready for
> free flight. The plan culminated with activation of the impactor's
> batteries at 10:12 p.m., PDT (1:12 a.m. Sunday, EDT). Deep Impact's
> impactor has no solar cells; the vehicle's batteries are expected to
> provide all the power required for its short day-long life.
>
> In order to release the impactor, separation pyros fired allowing a
> spring to uncoil and separate the two spacecraft at a speed of about
> 35 centimeters per second (0.78 mile per hour).
>
> With Tempel 1 closing the distance between it and impactor at about
> 10 kilometers (6 miles) per second, there is little time for mission
> controllers to admire their work. Twelve minutes after impactor release
>
> the flyby began a 14-minute long divert burn that slowed its velocity
> relative to the impactor by 102 meters per second (227 miles per hour),
>
> moving it out of the path of the onrushing comet nucleus and setting
> the
> stage for a ringside seat of celestial fireworks to come less than 24
> hours later.
>
> Deep Impact mission controllers have confirmed the impactor's S-band
> antenna is talking to the flyby spacecraft. All impactor data including
>
> the expected remarkable images of its final dive into the comet's
> nucleus
> will be transmitted to the flyby craft -- which will then downlink them
>
> to Deep Space Network antennas that are listening 134 million
> kilometers
> (83 million miles) away.
>
> While all is going as expected on the Deep Impact spacecraft the comet
> itself is putting on something of a show. The 14-kilometer-long
> (8.7-mile-long) comet Tempel 1 displayed another cometary outburst on
> July 2 at 1:34 a.m. PDT (4:34 a.m.EDT) when a massive, short-lived
> blast
> of ice or other particles escaped from inside the comet's nucleus and
> gas (coma) that surrounds it. The July 2 outburst is the fourth
> observed
> in the past three weeks.
>
> Three of the outbursts appear to have originated from the same area on
> the
> surface of the nucleus but they do not occur every time that that area
> faces the Sun.
>
> "The comet is definitely full of surprises so far and probably has a
> few
> more in store for us," said Deep Impact Project Manager Rick Grammier
> of
> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "None of this overly
>
> concerns us nor has it forced us to modify our nominal mission plan."
>
> Information and images from a camera aboard Deep Impact's impactor and
> flyby spacecraft can be watched in near-real time at
> www.nasa.gov/deepimpact .
>
> For additional information about Deep Impact on the Internet, visit
> http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov .
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/multimedia/imp-mri-070305.ht
> ml
>
> Separation Anxiety Over for Deep Impact
> 07.03.05
>
> [Image of the impactor taken after separation]
>
> This image of Deep Impact's impactor probe was taken by the mission's
> mother ship, or flyby spacecraft, after the two separated at 11:07 p.m.
>
> Pacific time, July 2 (2:07 a.m. Eastern time, July 3). The impactor is
> scheduled to collide with comet Tempel 1 at 10:52 p.m. Pacific time,
> July 3 (1:52 a.m. Eastern time, July 4). The impactor can be seen at
> the center of the image.
>
> Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Impressive successful impact at 10:52 PM PDT 07-03-05
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html
Post impact briefing at 1:00 AM PDT 07-04-04 on "NASA TV".
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
- L
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Larry Huntley Beaverton, Oregon
Skep-Ti-CultR Member #130-978649-969 http://www.skepticult.org/
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alchameth2@yahoo.com (Edmond Wollmann) asserted:
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