Newsletter Archive
Deep News
Newsletter for the Deep Impact mission
Issue 2
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August 2003
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Welcome to the second issue of Deep News. July marked the Deep Impact project's two-year mark before encounter and making 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.jpl.nasa.gov
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.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/update-200308.cfm
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.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/images.cfm
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.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/bio-ghorvath.cfm
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.jpl.nasa.gov/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.jpl.nasa.gov/disczone/braintwist-mission2a.cfm.
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.jpl.nasa.gov/community/index.cfm
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.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/index.cfm
and sign up before it's too late. Don't miss the boat - uh, or the impactor.
(NOTE: This campaign was closed in January 2004.)
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.jpl.nasa.gov/newsletter/200307.cfm.
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.
http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov
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