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Deep Space I Spaceeraft Encounters a Comet (P-480461)
This artist's rendering shows the New Millennium Program's Deep Space 1 (DS1) spacecraft approaching the comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura, an eneounter scheduled to take place in June 2000. The DS1 spacecraft will launch in July 1998, flying by asteroid McAuliffe in January 1999 and then Mars in April 2000 before approaching the comet.
This first deep-space mission of the New Millennium Program is expected to demonstrate and validate a suite of advanced technologies deemed critical to many future space and Earth seienee missions. Among the technologies being tested are a solar electric ion propulsion system, powered by an advanced solar concentrator array. In the artist's rendering, blue light from the xenon propellant is emitted from the ion thruster, which ean be seen at the bottom of the spacecraft. The inherent efficiency of solar electric ion propulsion technology will allow future planetary missions to use smaller launch vehicles and to be conducted in shorter trip times, contributing to the goal of frequent, lower-cost missions. Other advanced technologies on board include an autonomous navigation system, advanced microelectronics, and new telecommunications devices.
The collection and return of science data is also a DS1 mission objective. Advanced-technology scientific instruments on board include a miniature camera and spectrometer system for imaging the asteroid, Mars, and the comet, as well as a miniature integrated ion and electron spectrometer, which will measure solar wind and the chemical composition of the comet's environment. The DS1 spacecraft is expected to fly 5 kilometers above asteroid McAuliffe - the smallest flyby distance of a celestial body accomplished by any spacecraft. This is also the first use of solar electric propulsion and the first U.S. mission to carry an imaging instrument to a comet.
The New Millennium Program
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) envisions frequently launched, cost-effective 21st-century space and Earth science missions that will use revolutionary new technologies to enhance the capabilities of spacecraft, onboard instruments, and mission operations systems. Spacecraft will be smaller and lighter, with integrated avionics systems, highly efficient power systems, and structures that may be inflated or unfurled in space. New measurement techniques will be possible with microsensors and miniaturized devices. Navigation and mission operations will be carried out by "intelligent" flight systems aboard the spacecraft.
NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP) will enable these frequent, affordable missions of the future by identifying, developing, and flight validating critical, revolutionary technologies. Greater efficieney, reduced mass, lower cost, and increased capabilities are all factors in technology selection. NMP's integrated product development teams - with members from NASA field centers, other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, academia, and industry - are responsible for developing and implementing each technology in a selected validation flight.
Each NMP flight acts as a "test track" for technologies, mission type, operations concepts, and science goals. The first flights, with launches starting in 1998, include deep-space and Earth-orbiting missions.
The New Millennium Program is sponsored by NASA's Offices of Space Science and Mission to Planet Earth, and is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Teehnology.
Visit the New Millennium Program on the World Wide Web at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California