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Space Science

NASA's Deep Impact Moved Into Cruise Phase 87

Posted by Zonk from the commence-silent-running-mr.-tupalev dept.
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"
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NASA's Deep Impact Moved Into Cruise Phase More

NASA's Deep Impact Moved Into Cruise Phase

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  • Re: Deep Impact (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nevtje(hr ( 869571 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @03:44PM (#12061442)
    ok, and when are they sending up Armageddon?

  • Fastest non-atomic collision ever? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Toby The Economist ( 811138 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @03:45PM (#12061453)
    This must surely be the fastest collision of non-atomic objects engineered by the human species?

    --
    Toby

    • Re:Fastest non-atomic collision ever? (Score:5, Funny)

      by physicsphairy ( 720718 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @03:53PM (#12061493)
      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? (Score:5, Informative)

      by mike5904 ( 831108 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @04:04PM (#12061556)
      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?

      • Kinetic Energy. (Score:3, Informative)

        by aepervius ( 535155 )
        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.
        • How does that conflict with what I said in any way?

        • Re:Kinetic Energy. (Score:3, Informative)

          by reezle ( 239894 )
          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. (Score:5, Informative)

            by khallow ( 566160 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @09:20PM (#12063058)
            Incidentally, this is on the order of the kinetic energy of a fully loaded (with oil) supertanker [wcsscience.com] 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.

            • 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. :)
              • 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.

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

            1 metric tonne TNT is 4612070452.51237J according to this page [convert-me.com].

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

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

    • 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 [popularmechanics.com] 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 [popularmechanics.com] showing shock waves produced when you can do 0-6500mph in 6 seconds.

  • Crash (Score:4, Funny)

    by BinBoy ( 164798 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @03:48PM (#12061465) Homepage
    I hope it doesn't crash.

  • Budget Travel (Score:3, Funny)

    by Toby The Economist ( 811138 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @03:49PM (#12061470)
    "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
  • 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.

  • Mmm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by mfivis ( 592345 )
    At completion of the bake-out procedure, test images were taken through the HRI.

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

  • Let's hope... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Linker3000 ( 626634 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @04:00PM (#12061532) Journal
    Phase 6: The press briefing explaining why they missed.

    Isn't needed.

  • cruise phase? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 27, 2005 @04:01PM (#12061541)
    Is this when the probe goes around looking for other probes of the same type to "dock" with?

  • Gilligan's Comet (Score:5, Funny)

    by Urger ( 817972 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @04:01PM (#12061544) Homepage
    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.
  • Where's Kathie Lee Gifford singing about all the fun we're going to have on the way to smash into a comet?

  • Exclusive images of the encounter (Score:4, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @04:09PM (#12061586)
    There's already this exclusive image [ucalgary.ca] of Deep Impact's encounter up on the Web.
  • We had to destroy the comet in order to save it... as CSV.

  • I'm Not Sure... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by BuddyJesus ( 835123 )
    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.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:I'm Not Sure... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by vhogemann ( 797994 ) <victor@@@hogemann...com> on Sunday March 27, 2005 @09:46PM (#12063168) Homepage
      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... (Score:5, Informative)

      by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) on Sunday March 27, 2005 @10:12PM (#12063339)
      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 [nasa.gov] 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... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Bad D.N.A. ( 753582 )
        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 s

    • Re:I'm Not Sure... (Score:3, Informative)

      by iamlucky13 ( 795185 )
      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
  • Paramount's Deep Impact is $5.99 in Walmart bargain bins!
  • 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!
  • 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.

  • Book your tickets to Hawaii now! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Shag ( 3737 ) * on Monday March 28, 2005 @01:43AM (#12064264) Journal
    They're trying to time the collision so it will be visible from Hawaii, where Karen Meech [hawaii.edu] will be coordinating observation from all these telescopes [hawaii.edu] (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 [hawaii.edu] and Audrey [hawaii.edu] and all those other Honolulu-based astrobiology folks for whom I sometimes point this scope [hawaii.edu] 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 [hawaii.edu] and kick back with their 16-inch Meade and some popcorn.

    • *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'
  • 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.

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