Deep Impact Mission May Be Extended

SeaDour writes "The famous Deep Impact mission, which in 2005 launched a projectile in the path of comet Tempel 1, may be extended by NASA. The proposal is to slingshot the probe around the Earth as it passes by at the end of this year, putting it on a trajectory to reach comet Boethin in December 2008. Scientists want to see if the strange composition and behavior of Tempel 1 is more common than they had previously assumed. (The probe only had one projectile though, so we will not see another brilliant man-made explosion on this comet.) Additionally, while the probe is en route to the comet, researchers will point its on-board telescope at known exosolar planets to determine the compositions of their atmospheres."

Comments

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[Stanistani]

I feel this would be a very good use of my tax dollars - getting a second mission from the same spacecraft.

Re:Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

[Nyeerrmm]

I'd point out that this is the science side of NASA (Jet Propulsion Labs [JPL] in particular.) Working with both JPL and JSC (more involved in the high budget manned missions) for space mission design classes, JPL has always been much better about staying on budget, and doing more with less. Also they're less egotistical and seem to actually enjoy and appreciate working with students.

Obviously some of that is that manned missions are by necessity much more expensive, however, it's been my experience that there are also cultural issues. JSC sees itself as the crown jewels of NASA and behaves as such, spending more than necessary and generally looking down their noses at other facilities (I've heard stories of middle managers at JSC telling administrators of other facilities, who are brilliant PhDs that it might be too complicated for someone not at JSC.)

That said I do applaud the guys at JPL for this wonderful use, and do hope they get some of their money back after they got robbed to pay for Return to Flight and Constellation.