Wed, Nov 02, 2005
Lens Assemblies Helped Flyby Spacecraft See Clues About Comet
Formation
Rockwell Collins’ precision 38-millimeter lens assemblies
played an essential role in NASA’s Deep Impact mission that
is aimed at unlocking secrets to the formation of the solar system,
according to a company release.
On July 3, the mission’s “impactor” spacecraft
crashed into the Tempel 1 comet. The accompanying
“flyby” spacecraft recorded the event. Rockwell
Collins’ lens assemblies were used on the Ball CT-633 Star
Trackers that guided both spacecraft. The lenses also helped record
the impact event.
The flyby spacecraft is still operational, pending a new
mission, and is currently being navigated toward Earth.
The goal of the Deep Impact mission is to provide a glimpse
beneath the surface of a comet, where material from the solar
system’s formation remains relatively unchanged. Mission
scientists expect the project to answer basic questions about the
formation of the solar system by examining the frozen material that
was ejected when the 500-kilogram impactor spacecraft collided with
the Tempel 1 comet.
“The success of the Deep Impact star trackers highlights a
long-standing relationship between Rockwell Collins and Ball
Aerospace & Technologies,” said Jerry Carollo, general
manager of Optronics for Rockwell Collins. “This
groundbreaking mission is another in a long line of space missions
that Rockwell Collins has played a part in. That heritage includes
providing the communications equipment that broadcast Neil
Armstrong’s famous first words from the surface of the
moon.”
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