NASA Mission: Deep Impact Update
By Bryan K. Scott

June 21st, 2005


Ground telescopes are now being used to make last minute detailed measurements of Tempel 1 before the July 4th impact of NASA’s Deep Impact mission.  Every tiny adjustment is crucial to impact success and setting the camera exposure times correctly to observe the impact, which NASA scientists now believe will visible to binocular viewing from Earth.


     Tempel 1, the target comet, is traveling at approximately 23,000 mph.  This fact alone makes it a very difficult target to hit.  Add to this fact that the comet is spinning of all three axis’ makes the job for NASA an even more challenging and all the more a matter of precise timing.  NASA scientists confirm that this is a huge test for the spacecraft’s auto-nav system, but believe that it is up to the task guiding the impactor to its target.


The light from Tempel 1 is nothing more than reflected light from our own sun.  This can mask the true dimensions of the comet since a small shiny object will appear as bright as a large dingy one.  For this reason, NASA is relying upon a Spitzer infra-red image for their exact measurements.  This allows them to use the objects own warm glow instead light reflected off the surface of the comet.  The Spitzer has become an invaluable tool in this matter.
 


    At this juncture of the mission, NASA has said that there are no problems involved with the objective other than some high-resolution mirror errors that have already been compensated for by mission control.  The mirrors, it seems, were warped during take-off.  This throws off the aiming and of the high-resolution cameras.  NASA has not stated what steps they have taken to compensate for this, but have made assurances that it is compensated for.

All information found this article was gathered off of the NASA website. For more details about the mission, go to WWW.NASA.GOV/DEEPIMPACT.



Bryan Scott is a part time writer/columnist who comes to The Fedora Chronicles from Oklahoma.  He’s a big fan of sci-fi in general.  Also enjoys baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer… As well as  anything dealing with computers and NASA. He’s the security supervisor at a auto parts manufacturing plant.  He's married with THREE beautiful little girls…

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