DEEP NEWS Newsletter for the Deep Impact mission Issue 2, August 2003
Welcome to the second issue of Deep News. July marked the Deep Impact
project’s two-year mark to encounter and make a crater in Comet
Tempel 1. We are approximately sixteen months away from our launch
at Cape Canaveral. Deep Impact is the first mission to look deep
beneath the surface of a comet. For more about the mission, visit
the Deep Impact web site at http://deepimpact.umd.edu
SCIENCE UPDATE WITH PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR DR. MIKE A’HEARN
For the latest on the Deep Impact mission, take a look at our PI’s
Update. Dr. Mike A’Hearn writes to update us on one of the mission’s
major milestones.
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/mission/update-200308.html
PICTURE THIS – COOL NEW IMAGES FROM THE DEEP IMPACT MISSION
Take a look at our Image Gallery for new pictures taken at Ball
Aerospace and Technologies Corp where the flyby and impactor
spacecraft are being built.
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/gallery/images.html
HIS JOB ON THE MISSION FOCUSES ON THE 24 HOURS BEFORE IMPACT…
He’s 22, in his third year with the mission and if he weren’t an
engineer with Deep Impact, he might be playing bass in a rock band.
Meet engineer Greg Horvath.
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/mission/bio-ghorvath.html
EDUCATORS – MAKE A DEEP IMPACT IN YOUR CLASSROOMS!
Since you’re launching into Fall, take a look at our educational
activities for elementary, middle and high school at
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/educ/index.html
From modeling a comet to learning to work as a project team to make
crucial decisions, your students get a peek into the world of
problem solving and putting a NASA mission into space.
DID YOU KNOW? COOL FACT!
The impactor spacecraft doesn’t really speed toward the comet, the
comet speeds toward the impactor. If the spacecraft had to actually
catch a comet, we would have to take so much fuel to space that we
couldn’t get off the ground. So instead, the observing flyby
spacecraft will cross in front of the comet 24 hours before impact
and release the impactor spacecraft. The flyby spacecraft will move
to a safe position to observe the impact with its high and medium
resolution instruments. The impactor spacecraft will use the
24 hours to pinpoint the best location on the comet to hit when the
comet catches up and collides with it. The comet will pass over the
flyby observing spacecraft about 14 minutes after impact.
COMET BRAIN TWISTER: WHY COMET TEMPEL 1?
Tempel 1 is the comet that best satisfied a variety of requirements
when the mission team proposed. Can you guess some of the reasons
this is so? Clues are: Size, rotation, orbital path, brightness, and
schedule. Good luck! Go to
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/disczone/braintwist-mission2a.html
QUESTIONS FROM YOU: WHAT IS A WHIPPLE SHIELD?
Have you ever seen a snowball fight or been in one? What you need is
a shield to protect your body and your eyes as you search out your
enemy. The engineering team wants to make sure that the two imaging
instruments on the observing flyby spacecraft are protected against
dust and debris from the tail of the comet after it passes overhead.
Whipple shields (originated by Dr. Fred Whipple) are designed to
shield the instruments from particles that might fly toward the
instruments.
EVERYBODY’S TALKING…
Our master educators from the Solar System Educator Program (SSEP)
had a busy summer giving teacher workshops including Deep Impact
mission information and comet activities. Dan Malerbo and Ruth Rudd
just returned from New York where teachers had a chance to try some
comet activities for Deep Impact. "I enjoy sharing my knowledge of
space exploration with educators as well as children and the public"
said Dan. To learn more about SSEP check out:
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/disczone/community.html
While you are there, take a look at our Solar System Ambassadors,
who speak at public events. Grace Chen thrilled a crowd of amateur
astronomers with Deep Impact’s plans to look deep inside a comet and
Greg Chermak gave a series of workshops comparing Deep Impact and
the Near mission. With so many interesting ways to learn about the
Deep Impact mission, you may want to look into finding or maybe even
throwing an event in your area.
SEND YOUR NAME TO A COMET!
If you haven’t joined the over 230,000 people who have registered to
have their name put on the side of the impactor that will make a
huge crater in Comet Tempel 1, check out
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/sendyourname
and sign up before it’s too late. Don’t miss the boat – uh, or the
impactor.
DID YOU SEE DEEP NEWS ISSUE #1?
If you didn’t, you don’t know about what we might see as we approach
the comet, why the Earth won’t be affected by our encounter with
Tempel 1 or what’s new for Girl Scouts. Check out our very first
issue of Deep News at
http://deepimpact.umd.edu/newsletter/200307.html
The Deep Impact mission is a partnership among the University of
Maryland (UMD), the California Institute of Technology’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp
(BATC). Deep Impact is a NASA Discovery mission, eighth in a series
of low-cost, highly focused space science investigations.
