Comets And Deep Impact MIssions
Comets
Deep Impact Missions
Deep Impact Missions last up to 6 years beginning to end. Planning the design for the mission took place from November,1999 through May,2001
What About It?
Impact phase began nominally on June 29, five days before impact. The impactor(the guy that instructs them) successfully separated from the flyby spacecraft at 6:00 (6:07 Ground UTC) July 3rd.The term "comet" comes from the Greek "kometes" meaning long hair, referring to the tail.It takes 7 1/2 minutes for the flyby spacecraft signal to reach Earth. Once the mission is within its last hour, there is no time for the team on Earth to communicate effectively with the twin spacecraft. That is one of the reasons auto navigation systems are being built into the flight plan.
Here Are The Badges Below
COOOOOL!!
the first mission was a success in June 2005 when it landed on a asteroid instead of a comet (they are sort of the same). it took 5 weeks to signal back to earth
Whats next?
The second one was completed on November 2010. The launch took took place in Maryland and took 16 weeks to signal back to earth.
Epoxi Whaaat?
The last but not least epoxi mission took 37 weeks to signal back to earth and the gas tank busted off but was successful
3,2,1 Blast off
Following its launch on January 12, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft traveled 429 million kilometers (267 million mi) in 174 days to reach comet 9P/Tempel at a cruising speed of 28 hundred mph.
Check Out These Awesome Videos
First Images of Comet Hartley 2 From Deep Impact (EPOXI) Nov 4th, 2010.