Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

SpaceNut · 2005-07-05 10:29:39

One it allowed us to explore the chemical make up of the comet, which most feel is dirty ice but what was found was it contains a volitile content as well based on the flash from the probe striking it.

NASA's Deep Impact Generates its Own Spectacular Photo Flash

"The heat produced by impact was at least several thousand degrees Kelvin and at that extreme temperature just about any material begins to glow. Essentially, we generated our own incandescent photo flash for less than a second."

[url=http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050705/NEWS02/507050335/1007/news02]NASA hails a direct hit on comet

Deep Impact kicks up bright plume of debris[/url]

The scientists are only starting to draw conclusions from the strike, which was designed to look at the primordial material in the comet's guts to answer questions about the birth of the solar system.
The extended outburst from the comet's new crater suggests volatile materials were sustaining it, said principal investigator Mike A'Hearn from the University of Maryland.

[url=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/05/COMET.TMP]Comet blasters now work to put pieces together
Collision may hold clues to Earth's origins[/url]

Now comes the effort to puzzle out what this first-ever exposure of a comet's long-frozen interior can tell the world.
Deep Impact's scientists hope to learn whether the wandering cometary nucleus, orbiting the sun since the earliest days of the solar system's formation some 4.5 billion years ago, holds the very same materials from which the Earth was formed and -- perhaps -- the very same water and the same chemical ingredients that enabled earthly life to arise.

clark · 2005-07-05 11:14:41

Crashing probes into celestial bodies? Oh yeah, NASA *knows* how to do that. Congrats to the team!

SpaceNut · 2005-07-07 11:06:56

Now that the impactor has hit its target and the primary mission is nearing its end. What do we do with the rest of the probe?
Will NASA Deny Deep Impact Another Comet Encounter?

As mentioned before "Crashing probes into celestial bodies? Oh yeah, NASA *knows* how to do that" and that seems to be the only way that Nasa ever discards anything that it is in charge of.
Will it simply come down to budget cuts or putting it into a sleep mode for some far off future?

Palomar · 2005-07-07 11:20:02

Now that the impactor has hit its target and the primary mission is nearing its end. What do we do with the rest of the probe?
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1041]Will NASA Deny Deep Impact Another Comet Encounter?

*Saw that, and a different article pertaining to a proposal for a similar mission in the future (which seemed to indicate an entirely new everything). Who knows? Comet Boethin, huh?

Late yesterday (Tuesday 5 July - after this article was published online) the Deep Impact team was told for the first time that there would now be enough money to perform the TCM (trajectory correction maneuver) required to send the spacecraft back toward Earth for a gravity assist to whatever new target is eventually chosen. In addition, yesterday evening, the team was informed that NASA had identified funding for a very minimal flight operations team - just enough to keep the spacecraft going until a new target is chosen.

The same possibility applies to another remaining probe from a previous (and entirely different type of) mission (Genesis)...but last I read, just speculation as to its fate and no "real" talk about funding to bring it back, reuse it, etc. Nothing on the scale of what this article pertaining to DI says, anyway.

--Cindy

P.S.: And here's the rub, of course:

Given that Deep Impact did exactly what it was supposed to do, there are certainly other NASA missions waiting in line, which are struggling to get to the point where they would fly - and accomplish their own mission objectives.

Yep.

SpaceNut · 2005-07-07 13:28:20

Probably to early to start its own thread.

[url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8489482/]China counts down for its own comet mission
Deep Impact-style probe would make soft landing, experts say
[/url]

You go China!

Palomar · 2005-07-09 05:06:24

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … 82]Immense cloud of powdery material released

Data ... indicates an immense cloud of fine powdery material was released when the probe slammed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at 6.3 miles per second.
The cloud indicated the comet is covered in the powdery stuff.
"The major surprise was the opacity of the plume the impactor created and the light it gave off" ... "That suggests the dust excavated from the comet's surface was extremely fine, more like talcum powder than beach sand. And the surface is definitely not what most people think of when they think of comets -- an ice cube."
How can a comet hurtling through our solar system be made of a substance with less strength than snow or even talcum powder? "You have to think of it in the context of its environment," said Pete Schultz, Deep Impact scientist from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "This city-sized object is floating around in a vacuum. The only time it gets bothered is when the sun cooks it a little or someone slams an 820-pound wakeup call at it at 23,000 miles per hour."
... "Watching the last moments of the impactor's life is remarkable. We can pick up such fine surface detail that objects that are only four meters in diameter can be made out. That is nearly a factor of 10 better than any previous comet mission."

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17385]DI a "Dust Up" - not a Gusher

Theories about the volatile layers below the surface of short-period comets are going to have to be revised," Qi said.

Are reporting only weak emission from water vapor and other gases they expected would -erupt- from the impact site.

"The more optimistic predictions for water output from the impact haven't materialized, at least not yet."

Interesting.

Qi added that the comet might become more active over the following days and weeks. "We're still hoping for a big outgassing from the new active area created by Deep Impact. If we see any signs of that, we'll make more observations."

Article also mentions Fred Whipple's 5-decades old model of "dirty snowballs" (familiar) and today's model of "icy dirtballs."

--Cindy

::EDIT::

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17373]Here come the X-rays

From Swift. Material liberation = X-ray production. Prior to impact, Tempel 1 was a dim X-ray source. Post-impact it's growing brighter every day in X-ray light. They're anticipating its X-ray production will peak this weekend.

"For the first time, we can see how material liberated from a comet's surface migrates to the upper reaches of its atmosphere," said Prof. John Nousek, Director of Mission Operations at Penn State. "This will provide fascinating information about a comet's atmosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind. This is all virgin territory."

SpaceNut · 2005-07-11 08:16:28

It appears that from all the discriptions that comets grow slowly as did the early solar system.

Go the Extra Mile, NASA, And Fund Another Deep Impact Mission

Mike A'Hearn a mission leader is proposing that the surviving flyby spacecraft, by all accounts in excellent health with undamaged instruments should be sent to chase another comet.

A'Hearn's proposal is a three-year mission extension to encounter the comet Boethin in December 2008. The trajectory includes an Earth flyby in January 2008 to gain the extra energy to meet the comet. He estimates the cost would be $30 million.
Deep Impact needs a trajectory change soon if it is to have enough propellant for a new mission. That change remained forbidden by NASA Headquarters as the spacecraft team celebrated their hard-won success on July 4, a sign of money troubles and uncertainty about directions at the agency. Clear heads prevailed on July 5 and the course change was approved--but not the extended mission. We urge NASA to go all the way and support this very cost-effective proposal that should make fresh discoveries and substantially grow our knowledge of these interesting bodies, with a proven high-quality performer.

Only five comets have been approached by spacecraft, and only three of those have yielded clear pictures of their nuclei.
By utilizing the remainder of the vehicle to do this we have the savings of the launch vehicle of at least 300 million if another comet explorer were ever sent.

Palomar · 2005-07-15 05:46:28

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/deepimpac … tml]Tempel 1 "asleep" again

*Seems DI didn't have quite the impact they'd anticipated it would.

From the current analysis, it appears most likely that the impactor did not create a large new zone of activity and may have failed to liberate a large quantity of pristine material from beneath the surface.

The images obtained at the VLT show that after the impact, the morphology of Comet Tempel 1 had changed, with the appearance of a new plume-like structure, produced by matter being ejected with a speed of about 700 to 1000 km/h. This structure, however, diffused away in the following days, being more and more diluted and less visible, the comet taking again the appearance it had before the impact...the same jets that were visible prior to impact, demonstrating that the comet activity survived widely unaffected the spacecraft crash.

Wow. ??? Interesting.

An active region not related to DI impact. It has a cycle, apparently:

data set has already allowed the astronomers to characterize the normal gas activity of the comet and also to detect, to their own surprise, an active region. This active region is not related to the impact as it was also detected in data collected in June. It shows up about every 41 hours, the rotation period of the comet nucleus determined by the Deep Impact spacecraft.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-07-20 06:05:41

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/05 … pdate.html

*More on future plans for DI Flyby vehicle re-use. Engineers who designed and built the FV are very pleased with its overall health. DIFV is being prepared for a course-correction maneuver to return it to Earth. If all goes well, it should arrive in late 2007 or early 2008. Will allow for gravity-assist mission to comet Boethin in late 2008.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-20 04:06:34

Comet Tempel-1...

*...may have been formed in Uranus or Neptune region of the Solar System.

according to one possibility from an analysis of the comet's debris blasted into space by NASA's Deep Impact mission

Discusses analyzing the light emitted by gas released during the impact, among other things -- including Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud considerations:

Tempel-1 shares certain orbital characteristics with the "ecliptic" comets, a group that likely comes from the "scattered" Kuiper belt.
"The amount of ethane in Tempel-1, however, is similar to the amount in the dominant group of comets that come from the Oort cloud region,"

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2022-01-27 21:08:45

Bump impactor natural or man made can and do if we are watching can give us the indications of water and more with the right tools making the observations.

SpaceNut · 2022-01-27 21:18:52

Space x had a piece of hardware that has been adrift since 2015 that will impact the moons surface sometime in March of this year. Hopefully Nasa will be watching.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-26 13:52:32

Do we have a topic dedicated to 'Dart'

Double Asteroid Redirection Test DART is a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense

SpaceNut wrote:

Bump impactor natural or man made can and do if we are watching can give us the indications of water and more with the right tools making the observations.

'Tonight NASA will crash an uncrewed spacecraft into an asteroid. On purpose'

https://twitter.com/SenBillNelson/statu … 9199868930

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-09-26 13:53:45)

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-03-21 18:29:17

Reexamination of the large smooth patch on comet 9P/Tempel 1 as observed by the Deep Impact and Stardust missions
https://baas.aas.org/pub/2022n8i312p01/release/1

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#76 2005-07-05 10:29:39

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#77 2005-07-05 11:14:41

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#78 2005-07-07 11:06:56

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#79 2005-07-07 11:20:02

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#80 2005-07-07 13:28:20

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#81 2005-07-09 05:06:24

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#82 2005-07-11 08:16:28

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#83 2005-07-15 05:46:28

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#84 2005-07-20 06:05:41

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#85 2005-09-20 04:06:34

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#86 2022-01-27 21:08:45

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#87 2022-01-27 21:18:52

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

#88 2022-09-26 13:52:32

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#89 2023-03-21 18:29:17

Re: Deep Impact Crashing mission - Comet Tempel 1 target

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