Deep Impact Comet Encounter: Design, Development and Operation of the Big Event at Tempel 1

Abstract

This conference features the work of authors from: Georgia Tech’s Space Systems Design Lab, Aerospace Systems Design Lab, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Tech Research Institute; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Langley Research Center; and other aerospace industry and academic institutionsDeep Impact Comet Encounter was a mission to crash the Impactor spacecraft and its Impactor Targeting Sensor (ITS) into Comet Tempel 1 and record the event via a Flyby spacecraft. The Deep Impact spacecrafts, Flyby and Impactor, were launched together aboard a Delta II rocket from Kennedy Space Flight Center on January 12, 2005. Impactor ended its almost six-month mission by successfully transmitting back images of the comet as it plowed into the surface of Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. Flyby successfully transmitted back the first image of the Impactor’s collision with Tempel 1 via its High Resolution Imager (HRI), the largest telescope ever to be deployed into deep spaceAIAA Space Systems Technical Committee ; AIAA Space Transportation Systems Technical Committee ; Space Technology Advanced Research Cente

    Similar works