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The first stage of the Delta 2 rocket to launch Deep Impact was hoisted atop pad 17B on Monday, just 48 hours after another Delta 2 roared away from neighbouring pad 17A carrying NASA's Swift gamma-ray observatory. Deep Impact is scheduled to launch on 30 December on a mission to Comet Tempel 1.
The $320 million Deep Impact mission will rendezvous with the comet on 4 July and fire a 370 kilogram copper bullet into the heart of Tempel 1, carving out a stadium-sized crater. Sophisticated instruments and cameras on Deep Impact's mothership will record the blast and analyse the materials excavated.
Buried inside the hearts of these dirty snowballs are pristine building blocks left over from the Solar System's creation. Deep Impact will provide an unprecedented glimpse at the comet's interior materials that have been frozen in time for billions of years.
"What we see coming out of comets as gas and dust is stuff that has been modified because it is very near the surface, and every time the comet goes around the Sun the surface gets heated. So there have been changes in the surface layers. What I really want to do is figure out how different the surface is from what's inside," said Michael A'Hearn, astronomer from the University of Maryland and the Deep Impact principal investigator.
Scientists expect the materials thrown out of the freshly bored hole will settle within a few minutes, permitting good visibility into the crater. The mothership has less than 14 minutes to make its observations while zooming toward the comet before passing by Tempel 1 at a distance of 500 kilometres.
More info: Spaceflight Now
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