3.6 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Space 1 | 3/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_1 | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:10:04.519966+00:00 | kb-cron |
The flyby of the asteroid 9969 Braille was only a partial success. Deep Space 1 was intended to perform the flyby at 56,000 km/h (35,000 mph) at only 240 m (790 ft) from the asteroid. Due to technical difficulties, including a software crash shortly before approach, the craft instead passed Braille at a distance of 26 km (16 mi). This, plus Braille's lower albedo, meant that the asteroid was not bright enough for the Autonav to focus the camera in the right direction, and the picture shoot was delayed by almost an hour. The resulting pictures were disappointingly indistinct. However, the flyby of Comet Borrelly was a great success and returned extremely detailed images of the comet's surface. Such images were of higher resolution than the only previous pictures of a comet -- Halley's Comet, taken by the Giotto spacecraft. The PEPE instrument reported that the comet's solar wind interaction was offset from the nucleus. This is believed to be due to emission of jets, which were not distributed evenly across the comet's surface. Despite having no debris shields, the spacecraft survived the comet passage intact. Once again, the sparse comet jets did not appear to point towards the spacecraft. Deep Space 1 then entered its second extended mission phase, focused on retesting the spacecraft's hardware technologies. The focus of this mission phase was on the ion engine systems. The spacecraft eventually ran out of hydrazine fuel for its attitude control thrusters. The highly efficient ion thruster had a sufficient amount of propellant left to perform attitude control in addition to main propulsion, thus allowing the mission to continue. During late October and early November 1999, during the spacecraft's post-Braille encounter coast phase, Deep Space 1 observed Mars with its MICAS instrument. Although this was a very distant flyby, the instrument did succeed in taking multiple infrared spectra of the planet.
=== Current status === Deep Space 1 succeeded in its primary and secondary objectives, returning valuable science data and images. DS1's ion engines were shut down on 18 December 2001 at approximately 20:00:00 UTC, signaling the end of the mission. On-board communications were set to remain in active mode in case the craft should be needed in the future. However, attempts to resume contact in March 2002 were unsuccessful. It remains within the Solar System, in orbit around the Sun.
== Statistics == Launch mass: 486 kg (1,071 lb) Dry mass: 373 kg (822 lb) Fuel: 31 kg (68 lb) of hydrazine for attitude control thrusters; 82 kg (181 lb) of xenon for the NSTAR ion engine Power: 2,500 watts, of which 2,100 watts powers the ion engine Prime contractor: Spectrum Astro, later acquired by General Dynamics, and later sold to Orbital Sciences Corporation Launch vehicle: Boeing Delta II 7326 Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 17A Total cost: US$149.7 million Development cost: US$94.8 million Personnel: Project manager: David Lehman Mission manager: Philip Varghese Chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager: Marc Rayman Project scientist: Robert Nelson
== See also ==
Solar panels on spacecraft List of minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft
== References ==
== External links ==
Deep Space 1 website by NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory Deep Space 1 website by NASA / New Millennium Program Deep Space 1 by Encyclopedia Astronautica Deep Space 1 Mission Archive at the NASA Planetary Data System, Small Bodies Node