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

fp

[Ads are broken]

I just came. Now I'm going for burritos. Bye.

Re: Deep Impact

[Nevtje(hr]

ok, and when are they sending up Armageddon?

Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[Toby The Economist]

This must surely be the fastest collision of non-atomic objects engineered by the human species?

--
Toby

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not made of atoms ???

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[physicsphairy]

Hmm... crashing their probes into stuff?

I see NASA has decided the best way to succeed is to go with their strengths. :p

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[Garion Maki]

it is, but it's allot more of them together than ever before, so that it isn't considers just atoms anymore, but a spacecraft.

big difference (literaly)

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[mike5904]

Not the fastest, as Sandia National Laboratories have used one of their railguns to propel a .1 gram object at 16,000 m/s (nearly 36000 miles per hour). A spacecraft is certainly larger than that though, so perhaps the greatest kinetic energy of any such collision?

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[GigsVT]

They'll probably miss the comet because of metric conversion errors.

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[Andy Gardner]

Talk of fastest collisions brought to mind something i saw on the Dicovery channel which would surely be a contender for the fastest earthbound collision. The project in question is a 4 stage rocket sled that accelerates a 192lb instrument package into a concrete wall at mach 8.5. The video on the documentary was quite impressive showing the simulated warhead punch straight through about 5 meters of concrete.
Cool picture showing shock waves produced when you can do 0-6500mph in 6 seconds.

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[KinkifyTheNation]

Atomic objects meaning objects as small as atoms. (atoms)

Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't read that article. Too technical, they use all this jargon like "football fields". I'm just not familiar with those units of measure.

Crash

[BinBoy]

I hope it doesn't crash.

Re:Crash

[Garion Maki]

I asume the point is that is does crash, in a planned way...

would be funny if the one probe that is supposed to crash misses it's target and doesen't crash tho :D

Re:Crash

[Anonymous Coward]

Well... doe's it run Linux ?

Budget Travel

[Toby The Economist]

"This is your captain speaking.

We have now reached our cruising speed of 23,000mph. We will shortly be flying into a comet, so please enter your chairs are in the upright, locked position and extinguish all smoking materials.

Thankyou for flying EasyJet." :)

--
Toby

Re:Budget Travel

[Porag_Spliffing]

And ensure your entry is in the upright position ?

Re:Budget Travel

[pronobozo]

Thankyou for flying EasyJet." :)


In Canada it's called Jetsgo

Re:Budget Travel

[khrtt]

In Canada it's called Jetsgo

ValueJet.

Not funny.

Re:Budget Travel

[Shag]

Hmmm... that's more DeHavilland Comet than Comet Tempel-1.

NASA Business Plan ?

[mas5353]

1) Build multi-million dollar deep-impact spacecraft
2) Blast stadium sized crater in comet.
3) ...
4) Profit(?)

Funding space programs and crazy physicists works well for governments who can afford it because the masses can be overwhelmed with all the technology and their minds will be taken off other multi-million dollar projects (like WAR and cheaper OIL).

Re:NASA Business Plan ?

[double-oh three]

3) Learn more about the early universe and what comets are made of, including if they might be good sources of potable water for trips to the outer solar system. Also, the cool factor of shooting comet.

Re:NASA Business Plan ?

[Shag]

Actually it's more about whether comets might contain things that contributed to life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere, I suppose) - it's part of the astrobiology field.

If you want water for outer-solar-system missions, it's a lot easier to just recycle urine than it is to chase down inner-solar-system comets, methinks. :)

Call me cynical but

[zaktheduck]

Does that make the part where they actually crash the probe into the comet the decommissioning phase? I guess we'll know for sure come July.

Re:Call me cynical but

[johannesg]

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

Mmm...

[mfivis]

At completion of the bake-out procedure, test images were taken through the HRI.

Sound's trippy. I'll bring the snacks.

No.

[AtariAmarok]

Anything, anything, but please no-more sight of Bruce Willis in his really ugly corduroy space-suit.

Re: Deep Impact

[Motherfucking Shit]

To heck with Armageddon, when do I get to make Deep Impact with Leelee Sobieski?

Let's hope...

[Linker3000]

Phase 6: The press briefing explaining why they missed.

Isn't needed.

Re:Let's hope...

[Anonymous Luddite]

>> Phase 6: The press briefing explaining why they missed.

Let me guess: Flight plan designed in Metric, executed in Imperial Measure.

cruise phase?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this when the probe goes around looking for other probes of the same type to "dock" with?

Re:cruise phase?

[Anonymous Coward]

only if it's a homosexual probe

Re:cruise phase?

[Shag]

Nah, it sits in a deck chair and sips mai-tai's.

Re:cruise phase?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, it joined Scientology, devorced it's Australian wife and started acting really intense.

Gilligan's Comet

[Urger]

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this space port, aboard this tiny probe. The mate was a mighty sailin' man, the skipper brave and sure. Five experiments set sail that day, for a sixty day tour, a sixty day tour......... The weather started getting rough, the tiny probe was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, Deep Impace would be lost; Deep Impace would be lost. The probe smashed in to the shore of this uncharted space rock, with Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire, and his Wife, the Movie Star, the Professor and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan's Comet.

Re:Gilligan's Comet

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah.. prolly the worst gilligan's island /. post in quite some time. Try again.

Re:Gilligan's Comet

[Tablizer]

Mmm mmm mmm. Maryann and those shorts.

Re:Gilligan's Comet

[Anonymous Coward]

How did this get modded 5, Funny? It's just the theme song to Gilligan's Island with two whole words changed. Hardly any thought was put into it.

Cruise phase?

[AtariAmarok]

Where's Kathie Lee Gifford singing about all the fun we're going to have on the way to smash into a comet?

Well, It's NASA

[roman_mir]

So I hope they did their metric to imperial, imperial to metric conversions properly, otherwise we may just find out on this planet, who this deep impact thingy impacts.

this just doesn't seem real

[Nyder]

This just seems like a stupid publicity stunt, probably going to be CGI that we watch on July 4.
I mean, come on. let's let the people think they are safe from asteroids or other space bound objects, and we will give them a great show, the best fireworks they will ever see on the 4th of July.

next it will be alien invasion they fight off for next years 4th.

Yes, I'm sure it's all real and above board.
Just like the WMD in Iraq.

Meanwhile in Springfield

[AtariAmarok]

"It's not made of atoms ???"

Meanwhile, at the Springfield Atom Smasher.

"Constable! Make sure to search these workers thoroughly as they leave. Make sure they don't have any atoms in their pockets!"

Exclusive images of the encounter

[AtariAmarok]

There's already this exclusive image of Deep Impact's encounter up on the Web.

Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[EtherealStrife]

"Deep Impact is comprised of two parts, a flyby spacecraft and a smaller impactor. The impactor will be released into the comet's path for the planned high-speed collision. The crater produced by the impactor is expected to range from the width of a house up to the size of a football stadium and be from two to 14 stories deep. Ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater revealing the material beneath."
... need I say more?

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

uhhh, the reason for the wide range in their estimates is because the composition of the comet is largly unknown. They won't know what its made of until they smash into it and attempt to get some readings from the core of the comet. So it nearly impossible for them to attempt to calculate a reasonable size for this impact since the size of the impact will be determined by the comets composition. Thats the whole point of the mission; to find out what the comet is made of. Since the comet was made during the begining of the our solar system's creation it will give us a good insight into how our solar system was created and what type of materials are most abundant.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nonsense. In fact, they studied the comet enough to develop almost half a library of congress of information! They even engineered their own network to transfer two volkswagons of DVDs per fortnight!

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[shubert1966]

The resulting change in trajectory will bring the comet 'round to Earth in 2012 with Marduk and the Mayan princes of the Flying, Winged Sun.

Everyone at NASA will cheer in the destruction of all life on Earth and the re-installation of the savagery that was Tenochtitlan.

Yes NASA is a waste of cash.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi NASA troll.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

I swear you european cynics are getting on my nerves...

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[EtherealStrife]

European? Cynic? 0 for 2.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[EtherealStrife]

No shit. Anyone who so much as skimmed the article could figure that out. Humor...get a sense.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[gatkinso]

Yes, becuase I have no clue as to just what you are alluding to.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[rapidweather]

Ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater revealing the material beneath.

No one earth other than those with proper instrumentation will "feel" the effects of the impact.

Here's a story I ran across that would be of interest to those keeping up with "Independence Day" effects on Earth.

One day it's a giant asteroid that will snuff out all life on earth, another day it's a "super volcano", now this.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[jericho4.0]

European? Where'm I peein'?

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but just in case you didn't notice, your "funny" post was modded insightful. Now how it is insightful is beyond me but I'm guessing alot of people did not get the joke. Generally unless the quote actually has something stupid in it people tend to take a quote seriously and no offence but it did sound like you were a 14 year old kid who had no clue what he was talking about. Sorry man, its just the way it sounded.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[EtherealStrife]

My own fault for attempting humor on slashdot. The insightful baffled me almost as much as the +4 informative... *cough*

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

the christians wiped him out a few years ago

go holy rollers !

This corresponded to the year 1519. Due to this prediction, Montezuma II thought Quetzalcoatl had returned when Cortez and his troops invaded. He did not resist and was taken prisoner by Cortez and his troops. In 1520, the Aztecs rebelled and drove the Spaniards from Tenochtitlan, but Montezuma II was killed in the battle. Cortes reorganized his troops and resurged into the city. Montezuma's successor, Cuauhtemoc, surrendered in August of 1520. The Spaniards, being strong Christians, felt it was their duty to wipe out the temples and all other traces of the Aztec religion. They destroyed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico City on the ruins.

Re:Halfassed NASA Eggheads?

[tommy_traceroute]

"Funny" posts are often modded as "insightful" or "informative" by experienced moderators who understand that "funny" up-mods have no affect on karma, but still want to reward the poster.

Of course, I'm sure plenty of brain-dead n00bz contribute to the phenomenon also, but I like to discard any data that doesn't support my elegant and nuanced conclusions.

Not Funny: Deep Impact and Chinese Weapons

[Anonymous Coward]

After the "Deep Impact" experiment, NASA should issue a brief press release and then designate all the experiments' findings as "top secret". The measurements from the experiment would be a boon to Beijing, for the data could be used to improve the precision of guided missiles. The Chinese want to improve their missiles so that they can more easily hit American or Japanese targets.

Total Info Conversion

[Doc Ruby]

We had to destroy the comet in order to save it... as CSV.

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:I'm Not Sure...

[MillionthMonkey]

wouldn't it be easier to just drill a core sample from the comet?

No.

In the solar system frame, the comet is approaching very fast. Its aphelion is just inside Jupiter's orbit. Our probe is poking along at an Earthlike velocity in a roughly Earthlike orbit- it's the comet that's going to crash into the probe, really, not the other way around.

To get your Black & Decker to it in one piece, you'd have to accelerate to 0 mph relative to the comet. That alone requires gravity assists off other planets. Then you need to design robotics to move around on an object with almost no gravity and a surface that can't be surveyed very well from Earth (thanks to the bright coma). You'd have to drill a hole into a material of unknown composition, in a process lasting minutes to hours rather than microseconds. That means you'll have to make decisions at certain points during the operation, requiring bug-prone programming or impractical communication links to ground-based controllers.

Simply allowing the comet to crash into something and taking pictures of the explosion from a distance is much cheaper and more likely to work.

Re:I'm Not Sure...

[Bad D.N.A.]

There are missions in preparation to land on a comet. We have already landed on an asteroid and a comet is no different (just as long as you choose the right one). There are good scientific reasons for both (slamming/drilling) techniques. The drilling would be more accurate for composition (assuming that NASA properly funds the experiments) and the slamming will be giving more information on the "geology" of the body. Both are valuable sources of information on these interesting occupants of our solar system.

Re:I'm Not Sure...

[iamlucky13]

In addition to millionthmonkey's reply, I want to add that they're expecting a very deep hole covering a large area (potential up to 150 feet deep). There simply has been no low gravity, remote deep drilling techniques or devices developed. This will hopefully give the scientists a look at any strata that may exist within the comet, as deep as whatever is blown out. Also, the size of the crater should allow help them figure out how well bound together comets are and they will see particles blown out from a large area of the comet's surface, not just the diameter of a drill.

A lander mission has it's own advantages, which is why some scientists want to land on a comet, as well. There's definitely an advantage in getting a lens or a sprectrograph right up against the item of interest and looking at the microscopic instead of macroscopic picture. It's also much more expensive and probably cuts down the number of reasonable targets, since you've got to match orbits with the comet.

The asteroid landing mission another poster mentioned was easier because asteroids generally have less eccentric orbits, which means their velocity in the inner solar system will be closer to that of earth. The landing was actually a bonus feature the science team decided to try after the primary mission of orbiting, photographing and mapping the asteroid was completed, just because they thought it might work. Thanks to the low gravity, the crash/landing actually did work. Theoretically, the probe is still in good condition on the surface and can continue to return images and data, although I don't think there will be another time when it simultaneously faces the earth (for radio contact) and the sun (for power) for several years.

Re:I'm Not Sure...

[snake_dad]

FYI, there is a mission to land on a comet already on its way. Google for Rosetta . Another 9 years before arrival tho :(

Kinetic Energy.

[aepervius]

Kinetic energy is 0.5*m.v*v. I guess that the probe is at least 370Kg (3700000 more than your bullet). So to reach the same kinetic energy they only need roughly 0.0005 of the velocity, that is 8 m/s-1. I tried a quick search and found it it is 370 kilos but could not find out what the speed is, but due to relative velocity difference you can bet it is faaaar more than your bullet in KE.

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[mike5904]

How does that conflict with what I said in any way?

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[Zen Punk]

It's ok. Being on /., you might have forgotten this, but conversations don't always have to be arguments.

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[reezle]

23 000 mph = 10,281.92 m / s
KE = 1/2 (M * (V * V))
KE = 0.5 * 370 * 10281.92 * 10281.92 = 19557807593.984 Joules (Can this be right? seems like a lot)

The little item was 0.1 gram and 16000 m/s, so that was more like .00005*16000*16000=12800 Joules...

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[khallow]

Incidentally, this is on the order of the kinetic energy of a fully loaded (with oil) supertanker travelling at speed. Apparently, the top speed is roughly 8.3 m/s (30 km/hr) and the mass of a fully loaded tanker can exceed 400,000 tons. So

KE=0.5*4*10^8 kg*(8.3 m/s)^2 = 1.3 * 10^10 J.

This is on the order of the above calculation.

I got a slightly higher value for the velocity, but it's basically 1.035+/-bunch *10^4 m/s. KE is around 2.0*10^10 J. So you have a little more than the energy of the largest supertankers hitting a comet. Should be spectacular.

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[Hynee]

Yep, 19557807593.984J is right if your speed is correct.

1 metric tonne TNT is 4612070452.51237J according to this page.

So it is 4.24 tonnes of TNT, i.e., the energy of a very large conventional explosion, eg, a blockbuster bomb from WWII. Nothing near a nuke though, which is kT to MT.

This is all from kinetic energy though, no explosives on Deep Impact.

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[Shag]

It'll be spectacular out close to the orbit of Mars, though, for safety's sake. If it were closer to Earth's orbit, there'd be a higher chance of a big chunk getting knocked off and smacking into the White House. Which would be spectacular, but in a different sort of way. So it won't be terribly visible to us Earthlings... unless something causes a much bigger kaboom than we're expecting. :)

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[ArsonSmith]

Ohh, hell yea they do. You have no clue what you're talking about and your mother smells of elder berrys.

Re:Kinetic Energy.

[StCredZero]

Actually, if you hit a comet just as it was whizzing by at its closest approach to Earth, you'd probably reduce the chance of a piece getting knocked off and hitting the Earth to near zero -- for the 1st pass. That piece, in its subsequent orbits would have a better than average chance of hitting the Earth in a subsequent orbit.

In related news...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Paramount's Deep Impact is $5.99 in Walmart bargain bins!

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!

Flyby telescope is out of focus!

[Anonymous Coward]

DOH!

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0503/25deepimpact/

Looks like another big blunder!

Yu0 fail it

[Anonymous Coward]

BSD managed t0 make

For militery use

[DigiShaman]

I would say it has more militery value then it does in the name of science. Because when the day comes our militery needs to defend the planet from one of these killer rocks, we will need all the information available from strategic standpoint.

If we learn it's best not to blow up one of these things, then we better learn how to deflect one far in advance.

YouF insensitive clod.

[Anonymous Coward]

collect any spilled Rotting corpse the top. Or were, parts of you are between each BSD at this point Users of BSD/OS. A of playing your

Send Richard Branson

[zixor]

Any chance of NASA getting Richard Branson to pony up some cash, fund Deep Impact, and engage in some of his dashing-heroic schtick and pilot the thing into the comet? NASA would save some bucks, and we would be free of any future episodes of his dreadful Trump-ripoff reality show "The Billioinaire". Clearly a win-win for all of humanity.

Deep Impact

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't I seen this porno movie before?

Deep Impact has been covered on slashdot before.

[Anonymous Coward]

And will be covered again. And again.

Book your tickets to Hawaii now!

[Shag]

They're trying to time the collision so it will be visible from Hawaii, where Karen Meech will be coordinating observation from all these telescopes (in their respective favorite wavelengths) that night. (Technically, I think it'll still be July 3, local time.)

This will hopefully bring to fruition the hard work of Jana and Audrey and all those other Honolulu-based astrobiology folks for whom I sometimes point this scope at comets.

Now I just have to remember to ask way far ahead of time to be running the scope around then. Or... maybe not. Maybe I should just drive up to the visitor station and kick back with their 16-inch Meade and some popcorn.

Re:Book your tickets to Hawaii now!

[astrobabe]

*pokes*

All hail the mighty observers. We're pointing Spitzer at this as well, except we're going to be using a previously untested model with the spectrograph- continuous read mode. We're hoping to get a good time series of spectra. Of course I don't even want to think about how much data we're going to have to dump.

Of course the weather in Tucson is gonna suck horribly that night so I highly doubt that Kitt Peak will get anything since that's about the beginning of monsoon season (I should know, I've been rained out during that month more times than I care to admit)

What would suck...

[cryptocom]

is if the probe that we are crashing into this comet, breaks the comet into several large pieces, and one of those pieces happens to take a route toward Earth.

Re:What would suck...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would that suck? I'm running dangerously short on ice for my margaritas.