NASA's Deep Impact Moved Into Cruise Phase

karvind writes "NASA is reporting that the Deep Impact spacecraft has completed the commissioning phase of the mission and has moved into the cruise phase. Deep Impact mission planners have separated the spacecraft's flight operations into five mission phases. Cruise phase will continue until about 60 days before the encounter with comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. Deep Impact has been covered on slashdot before"

Comments

I'm Not Sure...

[BuddyJesus]

That this has much of a scientific purpose. I mean, wouldn't it be easier to just drill a core sample from the comet?

But it sure will look hella cool on the Fourth of July. Maybe it was just an excuse to create the world's best fireworks display.

Re:I'm Not Sure...

[vhogemann]

Which one is more likely to fail, an remote-operated robot drill, or a big hammer?

I guess NASA chose the keep-it-simple way, they throw a big hammer on the commet and analyse the dust that will be ejected from the impact. Its way more simple than landing some robot, to rescue it after. Also, the impact will reveal deeper materials than a robot-drill could reach.

Re:Call me cynical but

[johannesg]

No, that would be the mission phase. The decommissioning phase is not scheduled until several microseconds later.

Hooray for more space exploration!

[drewzhrodague]

Hooray for more space exploration! I was totally rivited to the Cassini/Heugens episode, and loved seeing those pictures of Saturn's rings close-up. The resulting images from the drop to Titan had me pretty-much at the console during the whole experience. Can't wait to read about the results of the comet-smash!