DEEP NEWS Newsletter for the Deep Impact mission Issue 5 – November 2003

The Deep Impact spacecraft is expected to make a football stadium sized
crater in Comet Tempel 1 on July 4 of 2005 making a large enough impact to
be visible through telescopes on Earth. This is your chance to get all the
latest news on our progress. For more information on the Deep Impact
mission, visit:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov
http://deepimpact.umd.edu

SCIENCE UPDATE WITH PRINCIPAL IVNESTIGATOR, MIKE A’HEARN
What’s the latest progress on the Deep Impact mission? Dr. Mike A’Hearn
gives an update.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/update-200311.html

PICTURE THIS! THE FLYBY SPACECRAFT
See the latest image of our flyby spacecraft. Tom Yarnell of Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp. keeps its progress moving forward.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/Flyby_Yarnell.html

STARRY STARRY NIGHT
Do you know that you can look up into the sky and see some of the stars that
the Deep Impact instruments will use to establish calibrations to measure
Comet Tempel 1’s size and shape?
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/starry.html

PLANETARY SOCIETY SENDS THEIR NAMES TO COMET TEMPEL 1
The Planetary Society recently submitted all member names (over 71,000) to
the Send Your Name to a Comet campaign and will now be part of the CD that
will be attached to the impactor that makes a deep crater in Comet Tempel 1.
Is your name there yet? If not, here’s your chance to join the Planetary
Society on their trip to a comet.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/index.html

MEET HAROLD MONTOYA
Harold used to wander fields when he was a kid looking for old pieces of
lumber and parts of bikes and lawnmowers so he "could build stuff." Now he
works for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. where the Deep Impact
spacecraft is being built. Did he know he’d end up building spacecraft? His
mother has a picture he drew as a child showing himself riding a rocket to
space. "How scary is that?" asks Harold.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/bio-hmontoya.html

ACTIVITIES FOR YOUTH AND COMMUNITY GROUPS
Need an idea for your community family night or science fair? Here are some
great Deep Impact activities and ideas for kids and families in your area.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/disczone/activities.html

BRAIN TWISTER – THE IMPACTOR SPACECRAFT LOST WEIGHT?
If your job is to make as big a crater as possible in Comet Tempel 1, it
makes sense to put as much mass into your projectile (our impactor
spacecraft) as possible. Right? Recently, the impactor came up 10 kg (almost
a 25 lb bag of flour) lighter than planned. Did the team add the extra
weight back in? And if they did, where did they put it? The answer isn’t as
easy as you might think. Can you figure out what the team did? Here are your
clues:

As the impactor is facing the comet, the back (aft) of the impactor is the
part that came up light.
The team realized some consequences of the weight loss during a spin balance
test when they found that the loss had put the impactor out of balance.
It is more important that the impactor be in balance than it is to have the
extra weight.
The electronics for the spacecraft are in the back half and the cratering
mass is in the front (fore) half.
For the answers, visit:
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/disczone/braintwist-mission4a.html

HEY KIDS. NEW PUZZLES!
If you’ve already done the puzzles from last month, take a look at this
month’s new Famous Comets crossword and wordsearch puzzles.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/disczone/braintwist-cw.html
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/disczone/braintwist-ws.html

QUESTIONS FROM YOU: HOW DID THE IDEA FOR THE DEEP IMPACT MISSION DEVELOP?
Many of you have asked this question. So, take a look at our interview with
science team member, Alan Delamere, and see how this remarkable mission came
to be.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/di-name.html

DID YOU SEE OUR PAST DEEP NEWS ISSUES?
Visit http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/newsletter/archive.html to catch up on
exciting past news from the Deep Impact mission.

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. See http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov or our mirror
site at http://deepimpact.umd.edu.