The Deep Impact mission is designed to provide the first opportunity to probe below the surface of a comet nucleus by a high-speed impact. This requires finding a suitable comet with launch and encounter conditions that allow a meaningful scientific experiment. The overall design requires the consideration of many factors ranging from environmental characteristics of the comet (nucleus size, dust levels, etc.), to launch dates fitting within the NASA Discovery program opportunities, to launch vehicle capability for a large impactor, to the observational conditions for the two approaching spacecraft and for telescopes on Earth. © 2005 Springer.
CITATION STYLE
Blume, W. H. (2005). Deep Impact mission design. In Deep Impact Mission: Looking Beneath the Surface of a Cometary Nucleus (pp. 23–42). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4163-2_2
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