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(meteorobs) Fwd: NASA Bids Farewell To The Successful Deep Space 1 Mission


------- Forwarded Message

From: Ron Baalke <baalke@zagami.jpl.nasadot gov>
Subject: NASA Bids Farewell To The Successfull Deep Space 1 Mission
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 12:04:21 -0800 (PST)

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington                   Dec. 17, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Martha J. Heil 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-0850)

RELEASE: 01-246

NASA BIDS FAREWELL TO THE SUCCESSFUL DEEP SPACE 1 MISSION

     NASA's adventurous Deep Space 1 mission, which 
successfully tested 12 high-risk, advanced space technologies 
and captured the best images ever taken of a comet, will come 
to an end Dec. 18, 2001. 

"American taxpayers can truly be proud of Deep Space 1," said 
Dr. Colleen Hartman, Director of NASA's Solar System 
Exploration Division, Washington. "It was originally designed 
to be an 11-month mission, but things were going so well that 
we kept it going for a few more years to continue testing its 
remarkable ion engine and, as a bonus, to get close-up images 
of a comet. By the time we turn its engines off tomorrow, Deep 
Space 1 will have earned an honored place in space exploration 
history."

Shortly after 3 p.m. EST Tuesday, engineers will send a final 
command turning off the ion engine, which has used up 90 
percent of its xenon fuel. After Earth's final goodbye, the 
spacecraft will remain in orbit around the Sun, operating on 
its own. Its radio receiver will be left turned on, in case 
future generations want to contact the spacecraft. 

"Deep Space 1 is a true success story," said Dr. Charles 
Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 
Pasadena, Calif. "We are proud that future generations of 
spacecraft will benefit from its accomplishments."

Deep Space 1 leaves the technologies it flight-tested as 
legacies for future missions, which would have been impossible 
without its trailblazing technology tests. Enabling spacecraft 
to travel faster and farther than ever before, Deep Space 1's 
ion engine was once a science fiction dream. Now this ion 
engine has accumulated over 670 days of operating time.  
Future Mars missions may use this technology to return samples 
from the Red Planet.

Deep Space 1's successful test of autonomous navigation 
software was a major step in the path of artificial 
intelligence for spacecraft. Using images of asteroids and 
stars collected by the onboard camera, the spacecraft was able 
to compute and correct its course without relying on human 
controllers on Earth. NASA's Deep Impact mission will use a 
system based on autonomous navigation to reach the nucleus of 
comet Tempel 1. 

Within nine months after launch, Deep Space 1 had successfully 
tested all 12 new technologies. As a bonus, near the end of 
the primary mission, Deep Space 1 flew by asteroid Braille. In 
late 1999, its primary mission complete, Deep Space 1's star 
tracker failed to operate. So in early 2000, engineers 
successfully reconfigured the spacecraft from 185 million 
miles (300 million kilometers) away to rescue it for a daring 
extended mission to encounter comet Borrelly. 

In September 2001, Deep Space 1 passed just 1,349 miles (2,171 
kilometers) from the inner icy nucleus of comet Borrelly, 
snapping the highest-resolution pictures ever of a comet. The 
daring flyby yielded new data and movies of the comet's 
nucleus that will revolutionize the study of comets.  

Launched on October 24, 1998, Deep Space 1 was designed and 
built in just three years, the shortest development time for 
any interplanetary spacecraft NASA has flown in the modern 
age. It was the first mission in NASA's New Millennium 
program. In addition to its technical achievements, Deep Space 
1 is an ambassador of Earthlings' goodwill, carrying with it a 
compact disc of children's drawings and engineers' thoughts. 

"I'm not sad it's ending, I'm happy it accomplished so much," 
said Dr. Marc Rayman, Deep Space 1 project manager at NASA's 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "I think it 
inspired many people who saw the mission as NASA and JPL at 
our best -- bold, exciting, resourceful and productive."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, 
Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space 
Science, Washington. Spectrum Astro Inc., Gilbert, Ariz., was 
JPL's primary industrial partner in spacecraft development. 

Additional information on Deep Space 1 is available at:  

http://nmp.jpl.nasadot gov



------- End of Forwarded Message



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