Deep Impact flyby spacecraft may get new job

By Leonard David

Senior Space Writer

updated 2:26 p.m. ET July 14, 2005

BOULDER, Colorado - Following its smashing success earlier this month with comet Tempel 1, the Deep Impact Flyby spacecraft is being readied for potential retargeting to yet another scientific destination.

The two-part Deep Impact craft consisted of the destroyed-on-purpose, battery-powered Impactor probe that was literally run over by Tempel 1, and a still-healthy Flyby spacecraft that monitored the event from a safe distance.

"NASA has given us a tiny amount of funding to make a maneuver next week that will set up the right trajectory and then enough money to keep the spacecraft alive in safe mode," said Michael A’Hearn, an astronomer at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. He is the Deep Impact mission’s principal investigator.

"They have not approved the extended mission yet because they haven’t found the money," A’Hearn told SPACE.com, noting that comet 85P/Boethin is the target for a hoped for new science objective.

This new object of desire, comet 85P/Boethin, was spotted in 1975 during a comet-sweeping session carried out by the now deceased Reverend Leo Boethin of the Philippines.

The comet experienced two close approaches to Jupiter during the 20th century. It will make two close approaches to Earth and two close approaches to Jupiter during the first half of the 21st century, based on the orbital work of Japanese astronomer, Kazuo Kinoshita.

Healthy spacecraft
The dual-element Deep Impact spacecraft was designed and built here by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation.

NASA’s $333 million Deep Impact mission is a Discovery-class project, one of a pedigree of probes that achieve ground-breaking, highly-focused science within strict cost and schedule limitations.

The encounter with Tempel 1 occurred nearly 83 million miles from Earth and at closing speeds approaching 23,000 miles per hour. The Impactor on July 4 at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) exhumed material from Tempel 1’s nucleus - the central portion of the head of a comet.

After imaging the encounter and sailing through the tail of the departing comet in a protected shield mode, the Flyby spacecraft — outfitted with science instruments and carrying a healthy reserve of fuel — continues to perform flawlessly.

Engineers did expect some damage to the Flyby spacecraft as a result of sweeping through Tempel 1’s coma and tail, but after exiting shield mode and starting the look-back imagery, they discovered "no appreciable damage," said Monte Henderson, Deputy Director of Programs in Civil Space Systems for Ball Aerospace.

The spacecraft’s optics has shown no sign of sandblasting, he told SPACE.com, with the vehicle’s high-gain antenna also in excellent shape. Not a single solar cell on the solar arrays was lost, he added. "We couldn’t be happier."

MORE FROM SPACE

Space Section Front

Cosmic Log: Light show sparks UFO buzz New images show Saturn's weird hexagon cloud NASA finally resurrects sick Mars orbiter First Monarch butterflies in space take flight New space scope to begin epic photo shoot Hubble telescope spots most distant galaxies NASA cooks up ingredients for life Huge black holes may grow in big star cocoons Cosmic Log: From the desert to space   Month in space: Powerful pictures Space Section Front   Add Space headlines to your news reader: