Laboratory Pasadena, California Vol. 29, No. 14 July 9, 1999 Jet Propulsion Universe Lab wins Discovery mission Deep Impact will send a projectile into the interior of a comet in 2005 JPL has been selected to lead a radical mis- than he heard NASA Headquarters’ announce- sion to excavate the interior of a comet, one of ment about the selection of Deep Impact for the two missions selected Wednesday as the next Discovery Program. flights in NASA’s Discovery Program. “I’m ecstatic. What a great day for all of The Deep Impact mission will send a 500- JPL,” Graf said. He thanked the whole propos- kilogram (1,100-pound) copper projectile into al team, whose efforts made the new mission comet P/Tempel 1, creating a crater as big as a possible. “We had a great team and it’s won- football field and as deep as a seven-story derful to become a part of the Discovery building. A camera and infrared spectrometer family.” on the spacecraft, along with ground-based Deep Impact will be launched in January observatories, will study the resulting icy debris 2004 toward an explosive July 4, 2005 and pristine interior material. Jim Graf is the encounter with P/Tempel 1. It will use a JPL project manager, and the principal investi- “smart” copper projectile because that material gator is Dr. Michael A’Hearn of the University will not interfere with the spectral observations of Maryland in College Park. of the material blasted off the comet by the The other Discovery mission selected will be impact, which will occur at an approximate the first comprehensive mission to map pock- speed of 10 kilometers per second (22,300 marked Mercury. The Mercury Surface, Space Deep Impact will attempt to send a projectile mph). The impactor’s attitude-control mecha- Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging mis- into Comet P/Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. nism will target a spot on the sunlit side of the sion, or Messenger, will carry seven instruments comet, Graf said. into orbit around the closest planet to the Sun. It Messenger. “The mission will return great science and will send back the first global images of Wednesday was a great day for Graf. No the encounter itself will have tremendous siz- Mercury and study its shape, interior and mag- sooner did the QuikScat project manager zle,” Graf said. “We will send images of the netic field. Dr. Sean Solomon of the Carnegie observe his team turning the spacecraft’s encounter back to Earth live, and people will be Institution, Washington, D.C., will lead SeaWinds instrument on for the first time in orbit able to see science being made in real time.” He added that the mission’s public outreach efforts will include amateur astronomers who Champollion mission is canceled will focus their telescopes on the comet to see the impact as it happens. Muirhead. “We had put together such a strong Co-investigators on the project from JPL By MARK WHALEN team for this mission, and we were ready to do are Kenneth Klaasen and Dr. Donald Yeomans. JPL has been directed by NASA to discon- this mission.” He noted that the core of the Klaasen is the interface to the mission opera- tinue development of the Space Technology- approximately 40 full-time staff members tions system and will coordinate all aspects of 4/Champollion Project, a mission to flight-vali- working on ST4/Champollion had also worked scientific mission planning and flight opera- date advanced technologies needed for the on the highly successful Mars Pathfinder mis- tions, while Yeomans, manager of the Near- exploration of small solar system bodies that sion in 1997, which Muirhead also managed. Earth Objects Project Office, will be responsi- included landing on the nucleus of a comet. “The spirit of Pathfinder was alive on ble for optimizing the ephemeris of P/Tempel 1 NASA cited budget constraints in its Space ST4/Champollion and we were doing this mis- and developing the targeting strategy for both Science Program as the reason for the cancella- sion with less money than we had on the impactor and the spacecraft. tion. The savings from the termination of Pathfinder,” he said. “Expectations were high, The formulation phase of the mission will ST4/Champollion will be used to cover increas- and the mission had the potential to be as excit- start Jan. 3, 2000 and continue for 15 months. es in costs for the Hubble Space Telescope ser- ing as Pathfinder was.” The implementation phase will proceed in vicing mission that resulted from delays in the ST4/Champollion had been scheduled for April 2001, with a Cape Canaveral launch tar- Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Also, some of the launch in 2003, with an arrival set for early geted for Jan. 3, 2004. budget targeted for ST4/Champollion will be 2006 at Comet Tempel 1. The spacecraft would “These low-cost missions are both fantastic used to replenish critically needed reserves in then have flown in the same orbit as the comet, examples of the creativity of the space science the Mars Surveyor Program. studying its nucleus for several months before community,” said Dr. Edward Weiler, associate “This is a big loss to the Laboratory,” said landing the entire spacecraft, anchoring and administrator for space science at NASA ST4/Champollion Project Manager Brian See Champollion, page 6 See Deep Impact, page 6 2 July 9, 1999 Universe Vincent Perun, Raymond Tsang, Shapiro of Section 506. James Velebir Jr., Rolf Wyss. The focus of the technical pre- Section 500: Susan Lee. sentations centered on new elec- News Briefs Section 620: Bunny Bundschuh, tronic packaging technologies, Jim Constantine, Wendelin with selected emphasis on packag- The winners of JPL’s Notable Maggi Glasscoe, Richard Gross, Donahue, Dion Duarte, Jane Lee, ing technologies for space vehi- Organizational Value-Added Michael Kelsay, Michael Lough, Patricia Parrett, Michael Salsman, cles, he said. Twenty-four presen- (NOVA) awards for June have been Todd Ratcliff, Tom Runge, Mark Michele Schneider, Cassandra tations were given from NASA, announced: Smith, Rabi Wang. Sellers, David Spencer, William JPL and industry, including. Section 210: Steve Kuan. Section 344: Annie Aroyan, Stewart, Patricia Vitti, Jean Walker, “Fabrication Lessons Learned Section 215: Kathie Reilly, James Dillon, Barbara Lam, Minnie Scott Yeats. from an Advanced Packaging Rodney Stanley. Perry, George Reyes, William Section 622: Carmen Diaz. q Technology Project” by Genji Section 220: Jienming Jou, Rousey, Anilkumar Thakoor, Arakaki of Section 349. Krishna Kunamaneni, Peter Lin, Carlos Villalpando, Hanying Zhou. More than 300 participants and To meet NASA’s “faster, better, Carl Liu, Charles Pecot, Vuong Section 351: Richard 60 suppliers attended a recent con- cheaper” strategy for space mis- Phan, Alice Smilgis, Haiyan Bannister, David Brinza, Sandra ference presented by JPL and the sions, the electronics packaging, a Wang, Jin Wang, Kai-Cheng Wu, Capaldi, James Granger, Donald Southern California Chapters of the key part of any space vehicle, needs Ida Young. Hagood, Denise Howard, International Microelectronics and significant reductions in volume and Section 312: Charles Acton, Alejandro Levi, Steven Lewis, Packaging Society, exchanging the mass, Shapiro noted, adding that this Vijay Alwar, Peter Breckheimer, P. Gary Milam, Melody Moore, latest technology information and reduction can only be achieved Daniel Burkhart, John Ekelund, David Pass, Tracy Pellegrino, breakthroughs in commercial, through the latest electronic packag- Pasquale Esposito, Gregory Garner, Walter Walker. NASA, and JPL space applications ing breakthroughs. Space applica- Eric Graat, Martin Johnston, Pieter Section 353: Henry Awaya, in electronic packaging. tions impose especially harsh condi- Kallemeyn, Clifford Kettembor- David Bame, Barbara Bonzo, Gani Coordinated by JPL’s Quality tions for microelectronics that most ough, James McDanell, Brian Ganapathi, Keith Goodfellow, Assurance Office 506, Electronic new technologies, such as those Portock, Tom Rebold. Shyh-Shiuh Lih, Charles Porter, Packaging & Fabrication Section found in cell phones or personal Section 334: Edward Caro, Sylvia Rivera. 349 and selected local members of computers, have not endured. Bruce Carrico, Scott Hensley, Section 357: Dennis Maciej, the society, attendance by work- “Attendees, presenters and ven- Alina Moussessian, Lisa Nguyen, Scott Premo, Werner Schwarz. shop participants and vendors was dors were all impressed by the Mimi Paller, Wu-Yang Tsai, Kevin Section 361: Son Ho, Trinia Ray. at an alltime high for the two-day array of new technologies and the Wheeler, Leilan Williams. Section 386: Tracy Lee, Robert conference at the Pasadena quality of the symposium,” Section 335: Dale Boggs, Lin, Mario Loo, Andrew Pease, Convention Center, said Andrew Shapiro said. q Special Events Calendar For more information, call (626) JPL Toastmasters Club— Von Kármán Lecture Series— Ongoing 397-3110. Meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the Dr. Michael Kobrick, project sci- Building 167 conference room. entist for the Shuttle Radar Alcoholics Anonymous—Meeting Friday, July 9 Guests welcome. For more infor- Topography Mission, will present at 11:30 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, mation, contact Mary Sue O’Brien “Mapping the Earth in 3-D” at 7 Thursdays (women only) and at ext. 4-5090. p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena Fridays. Call Occupational Health ERC Ticket Deadlines—Last day City College, 1570 E. Colorado Services at ext. 4-3319. to purchase tickets for the Brian Blvd. Open to the public. Setzer Orchestra’s Aug. 13 appear- Thursday, July 15 Codependents Anonymous— ance at the Greek Theatre (tickets are Meeting at noon every Tuesday. $49.50) and the Ringling Brothers JPL Astronomy Club—Meeting Wednesday, July 21 For more information, call and Barnum & Bailey Circus July 24 at noon in Building 198-102. Occupational Health Services at at the Los Angeles Sports Arena Von Kármán Lecture Series— Dance Lessons—Intermediate ext.