Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jun 15, 2005 23:17:43 GMT -6
Deep Impact Overview: By The Numbers
Here's a detailed listing of the Deep Impact project from Space.com...
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It’s a match six years in the making and the underdog doesn’t stand a chance, but that hasn’t dampened the excitement of NASA’s Deep Impact scientists one bit.
This July 4th, the agency’s Impactor spacecraft—an 820-pound copper probe shaped like your typical living room coffee table—will go up against the comet Tempel 1, a massive hunk of rock and ice about the size of Washington D.C.
SPACE.com looks at the step-by-step sequence of events leading up to this face-off and the technology involved in trying to hit a speeding object 83 million miles from home.
The Deep Impact spacecrafts—Flyby and Impactor—were launched together aboard a Delta II rocket from Kennedy Space Flight Center on January 12. For the past six months, the pair have been making their way steadily towards the comet, relying on little more than Newtonian mechanics and a few well-aimed trajectory corrections to keep them on course. They will continue to cruise along like this until approximately 24 hours before impact, when they will separate and the real show begins.
Too much to list, so here is the link: www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/050615_deepimpact_tech.html
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This should be great!....