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Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 1 2005, 04:02 AM

I open this topic to the Monday event!
In SpaceflightNOW:

NASA's Deep Impact mission promises to create spectacular July Fourth fireworks in space when it shoots a 820-pound copper-tipped bullet into the frigid heart of Comet Tempel 1, creating a window to materials frozen in time since the solar system was born.

The washing machine-sized projectile will be released from its mothership spacecraft at 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT) Sunday for the day-long cruise to oblivion.

"We put the impactor in the comet's path so that the comet overtakes it. So it is like standing in the middle of the road with semi truck bearing down on you," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The impactor and comet collide at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) Monday, releasing the energy equivalent of 4.5 tons of exploding TNT as they smash together at 23,000 mph. The intense forces vaporize the projectile as the circular crater -- perhaps 300 feet in diameter and 100 feet deep -- is rapidly excavated.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/deepimpact/status.html

Posted by: Decepticon Jul 1 2005, 04:15 AM

I hope we get full mapping of the comet. At the very least rotation animations.


I was a bit disappointed with images taken by Stardust.


Can we expect Phoebe type coverage?

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 1 2005, 04:24 AM

I hope we get full mapping of the comet. At the very least rotation animations.
I was a bit disappointed with images taken by Stardust.
Can we expect Phoebe type coverage?

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 1 2005, 04:33 AM

We will definitely get MUCH, MUCH better photos of Tempel 1 from both of DI's cameras than have ever been obtained of a comet's surface -- including detailed full mapping during the nucleus' rotation during approach. The worry about the High Resolution Imager is that they wanted EXTREMELY high resolution shots of the crater produced by the Impactor, since one of DI's major goals is to examine the layering of a comet's surface and the thickness of its Sun-dehydrated rind -- and so even the possible drop in the resolution of DI's HRI photos of the crater from 1.4 meters/pixel at 700 km distance to maybe twice that is worrisome, since the crater (if we're unlucky) may be only a few dozen meters wide and only a small fraction of that deep. However, when it comes to photographing the comet itself, this resolution (and the 7 meters/pixel resolution of the MRI camera) will, as I say, be several quantum leaps beyond anything we've ever had before, even if the impact experiment itself fails completely.

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 1 2005, 04:35 AM

By the way, the next DI press conference will be on NASA TV tomorrow morning at 7 AM Eastern time. I missed the last one -- which has never been rerun, as far as I can tell -- and so I hope they get some serious questions about the likely quality of the deconvoluted HRI photos (and that the reporters refuse to take any evasive guff on the subject).

Posted by: Decepticon Jul 1 2005, 11:11 AM

Here is the schedule http://deepimpact.umd.edu/press/schedule.html

Posted by: djellison Jul 1 2005, 11:47 AM

Brilliant - todays the day they turned off most of the Analgoue NASA tv signal - so all the webfeeds are all glorious static


Doug

Posted by: Decepticon Jul 1 2005, 12:39 PM

They should rename NASA TV to "ISS 24/7"

Posted by: djellison Jul 1 2005, 12:55 PM

Well - airtime is probably split dependant on where the funds go

Doug

Posted by: dvandorn Jul 1 2005, 02:29 PM

Brilliant - todays the day they turned off most of the Analgoue NASA tv signal - so all the webfeeds are all glorious static
Doug

Posted by: djellison Jul 1 2005, 02:52 PM

Ahh - some of the feeds are coming back now - http://www.napacomfort.com/mars/nasa_feed.html

I wish Sky Digital would carry it in the UK - it's so frustrating to have 50+ channels which serve no purpose save that of showing what another channel was showing an hour ago, and no Nasa TV!!!

Anyhoo - those two hrs of press conferences are at about 6pm UK time, so I've got some fun viewing tonight

Doug

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Jul 1 2005, 03:36 PM

The impactor and comet collide at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) Monday,

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/deepimpact/status.html

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 1 2005, 05:32 PM

Somehow it always seems the times of these events or the otpimum viewing locations are best suited for Africa or Eastern Europe, or some corner of Antarctica.  This time however it's going to be 11:00 pm here in California (with clear skies in the off-chance there's something to see in my 4-inch off-the-shelf reflector).  That will be just enough time to have a few drinks after putting the kids to bed.

I can't wait!

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 1 2005, 05:38 PM

Yep -- my local cable system carries a NASA TV signal that originates from one of the local high schools.  The high school brought in the signal for educational purposes and shared it with the cable company.

But today, the channel is blank.  So, obviously, the high school couldn't afford the digital coverter.  (What with the Minnesota state government being shut down starting today due to lack of funding and a governor who will only consider cutting essential services as opposed to finding new revenues, I'm not surprised.)

So, I guess I'm SOL when it comes to further NASA TV coverage -- except on the web feeds, that is. 

-the other Doug

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 1 2005, 11:25 PM

I'm still reviewing my recording of the press conference; but if I heard it right the first time, not one bloody comment was ever made about the HRI problem. Pfui.

Posted by: Decepticon Jul 1 2005, 11:31 PM

Watching NASA TV on streaming video is Bloody hell. Just awful.

I hate pauses in the audio.

Posted by: JRehling Jul 2 2005, 02:28 AM

Somehow it always seems the times of these events or the otpimum viewing locations are best suited for Africa or Eastern Europe, or some corner of Antarctica.  This time however it's going to be 11:00 pm here in California (with clear skies in the off-chance there's something to see in my 4-inch off-the-shelf reflector).  That will be just enough time to have a few drinks after putting the kids to bed.

I can't wait!

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 2 2005, 06:23 PM

The first events are:

Deep Impact Mission Events
Earth-receive time (in PDT)
July 2, 11:07 p.m: Impactor released into comet's path
July 3, 9:21 p.m.: 1st impactor targeting maneuver
July 3, 10:17 p.m.: 2nd impactor targeting maneuver
July 3, 10:39 p.m.: 3rd impactor targeting maneuver
July 3, 10:52 p.m.: (+ or - 3 min.): Impact with Tempel 1
July 3, 11:05 p.m.: Flyby goes into shield mode
July 3, 11:06 p.m.: Flyby's closest approach to Tempel 1
Watch webcast of these events: (all times PDT)
Pre-impact update:
July 3, 11 a.m.
NASA TV encounter coverage:
July 3, 8:30 p.m.
Expected time of impact:
July 3, 10:52 p.m.
Post-impact briefing:
July 4, 1 a.m.
Post-impact press conference:
July 4, 11 a.m.

NASA TV:

 35037main_portal.ram ( 501bytes ) : 305

Posted by: imran Jul 3 2005, 06:31 AM

From Spaceflightnow.com:

0607 GMT (2:07 a.m. EDT)

SEPARATION CONFIRMED! The impactor spacecraft has been deployed from the mothership for its 24-hour voyage to Comet Tempel 1!

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 3 2005, 06:36 AM

So far, so good -- the Impactor was released (slightly jarring the main
craft off attitude, but it quickly recovered and is currently doing its
deflection burn). The Impactor's own systems seem to be functioning
perfectly.

I've just learned that the main craft is actually scheduled to photograph
the Impactor at 12:05 AM Pacific time, at a time when it's about 1.2 km from
the main craft. I don't know which cameras they'll use; but even the MRI
should give us a nice clearly recognizable shot of the Impactor at that
distance, with a resolution of about 1 cm per pixel.

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 3 2005, 08:32 AM

JPL has now confirmed that the main craft did indeed successfully photograph
the Impactor from about 1.25 km distance -- something they weren't sure
would work. I presume it will be released, along with the first distant
photos of Tempel from the Impactor itself, at the next press conference at
11 AM tomorrow morning Pacific time.

Posted by: edstrick Jul 3 2005, 09:32 AM

One picture is already press released. Looks like specular sunglint off the more or less unresolved vehicle. I can't see any details outside the flares next to the glint.

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 3 2005, 04:11 PM

Picture of Deep Impact's impactor probe (released).
Impactor is at the center of the image.

Posted by: MiniTES Jul 3 2005, 04:35 PM

When will the first images be downlinked? Where's the first place we'll be able to see them?

Posted by: djellison Jul 3 2005, 05:03 PM

There's a press conf in about an hour with the first post-release images - then from about 0230GMT, best thing it to watch NASA TV

Doug

Posted by: Sunspot Jul 3 2005, 06:05 PM

The only problem with NASA press conferences is how long it takes them to get on to the subject of the conference or the science lol

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 3 2005, 06:10 PM

I guess that I'm going to record that NASA TV's Deep Impact Coverage...
...so I do a torrent here...
What do you think about it??

Posted by: Decepticon Jul 3 2005, 06:15 PM

^ Now that would be cool.

Posted by: volcanopele Jul 3 2005, 06:31 PM

Real-time images, albeit at low-resolution, are available from NASA's DI website:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html?skipIntro=1

just click on the Image Viewer link

So far nothing ...special. The images are just thumbnails of the originals. Also no HRI images (even blurry images would be interesting, you can always try an unsharp filter).

Posted by: Tman Jul 3 2005, 07:52 PM

Has someone a notion what we exactly see on this Image Viewer at the moment? What means this fragmentation in four different bright segments?

Hmm, in the meantime I guess they are different exposed pics and sometimes assemble to four pics in one.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Jul 3 2005, 09:25 PM

Here's the answer, Tman...

http://planetary.org/blog/20050703.htm

Phil

Posted by: slinted Jul 3 2005, 09:40 PM

For anyone who won't be outside looking through their telescopes, and is interested in following the live coverage of the impact online (and playing with the raw images as they come down!) feel free to join us in irc:

#space on irc.freenode.net

With so many cameras pointed at Tempel 1 tonight (many having promised prompt release of images), it should turn out to be a very active and exciting night!

Posted by: Tman Jul 3 2005, 09:55 PM

Thanks Phil! Also very useful (to me) gleaning the press conference at JPL.

Posted by: 4th rock from the sun Jul 3 2005, 11:40 PM

My guess is that the CCD imager is read in 4 different parts, one after the other. So the background levels will not be same, as some parts are exposed longer than others.
This is a guess, but I'm shure that with calibration the images will be fine.

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 3 2005, 11:52 PM

Idiot that I am (no agreements, please), I forgot to take into account the main craft's deflection maneuver. When DI took that publicly released photo of its Impactor, it was more like 240 km away -- not 1.2 km away. That means that, just to show the shape of the Impactor, the released photo must have been taken with the HRI. Maybe they HAVE found a satisfactory way to deconvolve its photos. (They said at this morning's press conference that it would take "between 6 hours and 2 days" to deconvolve the HRI photos of the comet itself for public release.)

Posted by: hal_9000 Jul 4 2005, 12:30 AM

Can anyone to record NASA TV coverage??
...and to do a torrent!!
Thanks

Posted by: deglr6328 Jul 4 2005, 02:55 AM

Idiot that I am (no agreements, please), I forgot to take into account the main craft's deflection maneuver.  When DI took that publicly released photo of its Impactor, it was more like 240 km away -- not 1.2 km away.  That means that, just to show the shape of the Impactor, the released photo must have been taken with the HRI.  Maybe they HAVE found a satisfactory way to deconvolve its photos.  (They said at this morning's press conference that it would take "between 6 hours and 2 days" to deconvolve the HRI photos of the comet itself for public release.)

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Jul 4 2005, 03:25 AM

You may be right. If so, however, then -- at 240 km range -- MRI's resolution should be only about 2.4 meters, which means that the Impactor should fill only 1 pixel in it.

Posted by: deglr6328 Jul 4 2005, 04:34 AM

UGH!! !! Is anyone else trying to watch streaming NASATV? As usual duing these times it is virtually useless. Spending 90% of the time buffering and 10% of the time in choppy garbled video. Why don't they at least try to experiment with distributed P2P streaming video?! And I have digial cable but do they carry NASATV? noOOooo. but I do have about 300 channels of ginsu knife hawking home shopping channels. Sigh. Oh well.

Posted by: djellison Jul 4 2005, 04:43 AM

Well
http://www.napacomfort.com/mars/nasa_feed.html
I'm using an AMES real player feed. it's a slow frame rate, but the actual quality of the video is good, and the sound is excellent - no stutters as of yet.

The WMP feed from nasa.gov stutters all the time - very annoying.

Doug

Posted by: jaredGalen Jul 4 2005, 04:52 AM

I'm using the windows media stream from the NASA TV Landing page.
It's perfect, sound and pictures.

Posted by: deglr6328 Jul 4 2005, 04:53 AM

Wow! thanks so much for that site! don't know why I'd never been there before. really useful!

Posted by: djellison Jul 4 2005, 04:58 AM

Report back on any good feeds

Doug

Posted by: lyford Jul 4 2005, 05:09 AM

does the Deep Impact site have live HRI updates? I can't seem to see anything different...

Posted by: djellison Jul 4 2005, 05:10 AM

Nope - HRI stuff is being kept back so they can process it

Doug

Posted by: deglr6328 Jul 4 2005, 05:12 AM

I find that http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/rrg2.pl?encoder/nasatv-cc.rm is quite good. Nice fast link. Audio is a bit rubbish but that seems to be the case with all the ra streams.... I've been trying to get on IRC freenode but keep getting: "Banned: freenode-admin; Please upgrade mIRC. Version 6.01 creates security exposures." yet I'm using v6.16 .....so not sure how others are faring there...

Posted by: jaredGalen Jul 4 2005, 05:23 AM

Nope - HRI stuff is being kept back so they can process it

Doug

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:24 AM

Here's an impacting targeting sensor image from a few minutes ago - the on-screen RealPlayer images show what they say are almost real-time deconvolved images, but I can't grab them. You can certainly see nucleus details, though!

Posted by: lyford Jul 4 2005, 05:29 AM

no sure if anyone posted this already

kitt peak live image of Tempel

http://www.noao.edu/news/deep-impact/

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:35 AM

Another impacting targeting sensor image from a few minutes ago - some detail now visible.

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:38 AM

An enlargement...

Posted by: dilo Jul 4 2005, 05:39 AM

HRI realtime deconvolution few mins ago from NASA TV:

Posted by: lyford Jul 4 2005, 05:43 AM

doh -
kitt peak must be swamped!
"could not open the page “http://www.noao.edu/news/deep-impact/” because the server stopped responding."

though here are some other images
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/deepimpact/050704firstcloseups.html

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:44 AM

HRI realtime deconvolution few mins ago from NASA TV:

Posted by: dilo Jul 4 2005, 05:46 AM

Dilo:

How'd you do that? (sigh)

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:47 AM

doh -
kitt peak must be swamped!
"could not open the page “http://www.noao.edu/news/deep-impact/” because the server stopped responding."

though here are some other images
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/deepimpact/050704firstcloseups.html

Posted by: djellison Jul 4 2005, 05:48 AM

If you turn off hardware acceleration for video playback, you can take screengrabs of things like realplayer and wmp

Doug

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:49 AM

And the other one:

Posted by: lyford Jul 4 2005, 05:51 AM

He's switched off his targeting computer!

No wait, that's Star Wars, sorry

20 seconds to impact!

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:56 AM

Looks like the locals are out already, welcoming their new visitors!

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 4 2005, 05:59 AM

Serious impact plumes visible on the live feed! Yee-ha!

Posted by: dilo Jul 4 2005, 05:59 AM

BANG!

Posted by: djellison Jul 4 2005, 06:01 AM

Moving action to the realtime thread