Deep Space 1
Encyclopedia
Deep Space 1 is a spacecraft
of the NASA
New Millennium Program
dedicated to testing a payload of advanced, high risk technologies.
Launched on 24 October 1998, the Deep Space mission carried out a flyby of asteroid
9969 Braille
, which was selected as the mission's science target. Its mission was extended twice to include an encounter with Comet Borrelly
and further engineering testing. Problems during its initial stages and with its star tracker led to repeated changes in mission configuration. While the flyby of the asteroid was a partial success, the encounter with the comet retrieved valuable information. Three of twelve technologies on board had to work within a few minutes of separation from the carrier rocket for the mission to continue.
The Deep Space series was continued by the Deep Space 2
probes, which were launched in January 1999 on Mars Polar Lander
and were intended to strike the surface of Mars.
, takes images of known bright asteroid
s. The asteroids in the inner Solar System move in relation to other bodies at a noticeable, predictable speed. Thus a spacecraft can determine its relative position by tracking such asteroids across the star background, which appears fixed over such timescales. Two or more asteroids let the spacecraft triangulate its position; two or more positions in time let the spacecraft determine its trajectory. Existing spacecraft are tracked by their interactions with the transmitters of the Deep Space Network
(DSN), in effect an inverse GPS
. However, DSN tracking requires many skilled operators, and the DSN is overburdened by its use as a communications network. The use of Autonav reduces mission cost and DSN demands.
The Autonav system can also be used in reverse, tracking the position of bodies relative to the spacecraft. This is used to acquire targets for the scientific instruments. The spacecraft is programmed with the target's coarse location. After initial acquisition, Autonav keeps the subject in frame, even commandeering the spacecraft's attitude control. The next spacecraft to use Autonav was Deep Impact.
es made of silicone
to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells. ABLE Engineering developed the concentrator technology and built the solar array for DS1, with Entech Inc, who supplied the Fresnel optics, and the NASA Glenn Research Center
. The activity was sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. The concentrating lens technology was combined with dual-junction solar cells, which had considerably better performance than the GaAs
solar cells that were the state of the art at the time of the mission launch.
The SCARLET arrays generated 2.5 kilowatts at 1 AU, with less size and weight than conventional arrays.
The NSTAR electrostatic ion thruster
, developed at NASA Glenn, achieves a specific impulse
of one to three thousand seconds. This is an order of magnitude higher than traditional space propulsion methods, resulting in a mass savings of approximately half. This leads to much cheaper launch vehicles. Although the engine produces just 92 millinewtons (0.331 ounce-force
) thrust at maximum power, the craft achieved high speeds because ion engines thrust continuously for long periods. The engine fired for 678 total days, a record for such engines.
The next spacecraft to use NSTAR engines was the Dawn spacecraft, with three redundant units.
and will support the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory
. Livingstone2 was flown as an experiment onboard Earth Observing 1, and an F-18 at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
.
signal on a predetermined frequency. Without data decoding, the carrier can be detected by much simpler ground antennas and receivers. If the spacecraft detects an anomaly, it changes the carrier between four tones, based on urgency. Ground receivers then signal operators to divert DSN resources. This prevents skilled operators and expensive hardware from babysitting an unburdened mission operating nominally. A similar system is used on the New Horizons
Pluto probe to keep costs down during its ten-year cruise from Jupiter to Pluto.
(SDST) is a compact and light weight radio communications system. Aside from using miniaturized components, the SDST is capable of communicating over the Ka band
. Because this band is higher in frequency than bands currently in use by deep-space missions, the same amount of data can be sent by smaller equipment in space and on the ground. Conversely, existing DSN antennas can split time among more missions. At the time of launch, the DSN had a small number of Ka receivers installed on an experimental basis; Ka operations and missions are increasing.
) imaging channel, and discerns chemical composition with infrared and ultraviolet channels. All channels share a 10 cm telescope, which uses a silicon carbide
mirror.
The ion propulsion engine initially failed after 4.5 minutes of operation. However, it was later restored to action and performed excellently. Early in the mission, material ejected during launch vehicle separation caused the closely spaced ion extraction grids to short-circuit. The contamination was eventually cleared, as the material was eroded by electrical arcing, sublimed by outgassing, or simply allowed to drift out. This was achieved by repeatedly restarting the engine in an engine repair mode, arcing across trapped material.
It was thought that the ion exhaust might interfere with other spacecraft systems, such as radio communications or the science instruments. The PEPE detectors had a secondary function to monitor such effects from the engine. No interference was found.
Another failure was the loss of the star tracker. The star tracker determines spacecraft orientation by comparing the star field to its internal charts. The mission was saved when the MICAS camera was reprogrammed to substitute for the star tracker. Although MICAS is more sensitive, its field-of-view is an order of magnitude smaller, creating a greater information processing burden. Ironically, the star tracker was an off-the-shelf component, expected to be highly reliable.
Without a working star tracker, ion thrusting was temporarily suspended. The loss of thrust time forced the cancellation of a flyby past Comet Wilson-Harrington
.
The Autonav system required occasional manual corrections. Most problems were in identifying objects that were too dim, or were difficult to identify because of brighter objects causing diffraction spikes and reflections in the camera, causing Autonav to misidentify targets.
The Remote Agent system was presented with three simulated failures on the spacecraft and correctly handled each event.
Overall this constituted a successful demonstration of fully autonomous planning, diagnosis, and recovery.
The MICAS instrument was a design success, but the ultraviolet channel failed due to an electrical fault. Later in the mission, after the star tracker failure, MICAS assumed this duty as well. This caused continual interruptions in its scientific use during the remaining mission, including the Comet Borrelly encounter.
The flyby of the asteroid 9969 Braille
was only a partial success. Deep Space 1 was intended to perform the flyby at 56000 km/h (34,797 mph) at only 240 m (787 ft) from the asteroid. Due to technical difficulties, including a software crash shortly before approach, the craft instead passed Braille at a distance of 26 km (16 mi). This, plus Braille's lower albedo
, meant that the asteroid was not bright enough for the autonav to focus the camera in the right direction, and the picture shoot was delayed by almost an hour. The resulting pictures were disappointingly indistinct.
However, the flyby of Comet Borrelly was a great success and returned extremely detailed images of the comet's surface. Such images were of higher resolution than the only previous pictures, of Halley's Comet
taken by the Giotto
spacecraft. The PEPE instrument reported that the comet's fields were offset from the nucleus. This is believed to be due to emission of jets, which were not distributed evenly across the comet's surface.
Despite having no debris shields, the spacecraft survived the comet passage intact. Once again, the sparse comet jets did not appear to point towards the spacecraft. Deep Space 1 then entered its second extended mission phase, focused on retesting the spacecraft's hardware technologies. The focus of this mission phase was on the ion engine systems. The spacecraft eventually ran out of hydrazine
fuel for its attitude control thrusters. The highly efficient ion thruster had a sufficient amount of propellant left to perform attitude control in addition to main propulsion, thus allowing the mission to continue.
Deep Space 1 succeeded in its primary and secondary objectives including flybys of the asteroid
Braille
and of Comet Borrelly
, returning valuable science data and images. DS1's ion engines were shut down on 18 December 2001 at approximately 20:00:00 UTC, signaling the end of the mission. However, on-board communications remain active in case the craft is needed in the future.
A proposed alternative end-of-mission plan involved an encounter with the asteroid 1999 KK1 in August 2002. However, cost reasons meant this was not selected.
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
of the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
New Millennium Program
New Millennium program
New Millennium Program is a NASA project with focus on engineering validation of new technologies for space applications. Funding for the program was eliminated from the FY2009 budget by the 110th United States Congress, effectively leading to its cancellation.The spacecraft in the New Millennium...
dedicated to testing a payload of advanced, high risk technologies.
Launched on 24 October 1998, the Deep Space mission carried out a flyby of asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
9969 Braille
9969 Braille
9969 Braille is a small Mars-crossing asteroid that orbits the Sun once every 3.58 years. It was discovered in 1992 by astronomers at Palomar observatory and later named after Louis Braille, the inventor of the writing system for the blind...
, which was selected as the mission's science target. Its mission was extended twice to include an encounter with Comet Borrelly
19P/Borrelly
Comet Borrelly or Borrelly's Comet is a periodic comet, which was visited by the spacecraft Deep Space 1 in 2001.- Discovery :...
and further engineering testing. Problems during its initial stages and with its star tracker led to repeated changes in mission configuration. While the flyby of the asteroid was a partial success, the encounter with the comet retrieved valuable information. Three of twelve technologies on board had to work within a few minutes of separation from the carrier rocket for the mission to continue.
The Deep Space series was continued by the Deep Space 2
Deep Space 2
Deep Space 2 was a NASA probe which was part of the New Millennium Program. It included two highly advanced miniature space probes which were sent to Mars aboard the Mars Polar Lander in January 1999. The probes were named "Scott" and "Amundsen", in honor of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen,...
probes, which were launched in January 1999 on Mars Polar Lander
Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander, also referred to as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, was a 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander, launched by NASA on January 3, 1999, to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars, as part of the Mars Surveyor '98 mission...
and were intended to strike the surface of Mars.
Autonav
The Autonav system, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
, takes images of known bright asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s. The asteroids in the inner Solar System move in relation to other bodies at a noticeable, predictable speed. Thus a spacecraft can determine its relative position by tracking such asteroids across the star background, which appears fixed over such timescales. Two or more asteroids let the spacecraft triangulate its position; two or more positions in time let the spacecraft determine its trajectory. Existing spacecraft are tracked by their interactions with the transmitters of the Deep Space Network
Deep Space Network
The Deep Space Network, or DSN, is a world-wide network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe, and supports selected...
(DSN), in effect an inverse GPS
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
. However, DSN tracking requires many skilled operators, and the DSN is overburdened by its use as a communications network. The use of Autonav reduces mission cost and DSN demands.
The Autonav system can also be used in reverse, tracking the position of bodies relative to the spacecraft. This is used to acquire targets for the scientific instruments. The spacecraft is programmed with the target's coarse location. After initial acquisition, Autonav keeps the subject in frame, even commandeering the spacecraft's attitude control. The next spacecraft to use Autonav was Deep Impact.
SCARLET concentrating solar array
Primary power for the mission was produced by a new solar array technology, the Solar Concentrator Array with Refractive Linear Element Technology (SCARLET), which uses linear Fresnel lensFresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
es made of silicone
Silicone
Silicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells. ABLE Engineering developed the concentrator technology and built the solar array for DS1, with Entech Inc, who supplied the Fresnel optics, and the NASA Glenn Research Center
Glenn Research Center
NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center, located within the cities of Brook Park, Cleveland and Fairview Park, Ohio between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Cleveland Metroparks's Rocky River Reservation, and has other subsidiary facilities in Ohio...
. The activity was sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. The concentrating lens technology was combined with dual-junction solar cells, which had considerably better performance than the GaAs
Gaas
Gaas is a commune in the Landes department in Aquitaine in south-western France....
solar cells that were the state of the art at the time of the mission launch.
The SCARLET arrays generated 2.5 kilowatts at 1 AU, with less size and weight than conventional arrays.
NSTAR ion engine
Although ion engines had been developed at NASA since the late 1950s, with the exception of the SERT missions in the 1960s, the technology had not been demonstrated in flight. This lack of a performance history in space meant that despite the potential savings in propellant mass, the technology was considered too experimental to be being used for high-cost missions. It was a primary mission of the Deep Space 1 demonstration to show long duration use of an ion thruster on a science mission. Deep Space 1 was the first use of ion engines on an operational science spacecraft.The NSTAR electrostatic ion thruster
Electrostatic ion thruster
An electrostatic ion thruster is a design for ion thrusters . These designs use high voltage electrodes in order to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces.-History:...
, developed at NASA Glenn, achieves a specific impulse
Specific impulse
Specific impulse is a way to describe the efficiency of rocket and jet engines. It represents the derivative of the impulse with respect to amount of propellant used, i.e., the thrust divided by the amount of propellant used per unit time. If the "amount" of propellant is given in terms of mass ,...
of one to three thousand seconds. This is an order of magnitude higher than traditional space propulsion methods, resulting in a mass savings of approximately half. This leads to much cheaper launch vehicles. Although the engine produces just 92 millinewtons (0.331 ounce-force
Pound-force
The pound force is a unit of force in some systems of measurement including English engineering units and British gravitational units.- Definitions :...
) thrust at maximum power, the craft achieved high speeds because ion engines thrust continuously for long periods. The engine fired for 678 total days, a record for such engines.
The next spacecraft to use NSTAR engines was the Dawn spacecraft, with three redundant units.
Remote Agent
Remote Agent (remote intelligent self-repair software)(RAX), developed at NASA Ames Research Center and JPL, was the first artificial intelligence control system to control a spacecraft without human supervision. Remote Agent successfully demonstrated the ability to plan onboard activities and correctly diagnose and respond to simulated faults in spacecraft components. Autonomous control will enable future spacecraft to operate at greater distances from Earth, and to carry out more sophisticated science-gathering activities in deep space. Components of the Remote Agent software have been used to support other NASA Missions. Major components of Remote Agent were a robust planner (EUROPA), a plan execution system (EXEC) and a model-based diagnostic system (Livingstone). EUROPA was used as a ground-based planner for the Mars Exploration Rovers. EUROPA II was used to support the Phoenix Mars LanderPhoenix (spacecraft)
Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008...
and will support the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory
Mars Science Laboratory
The Mars Science Laboratory is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission with the aim to land and operate a rover named Curiosity on the surface of Mars. The MSL was launched November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST and is scheduled to land on Mars at Gale Crater between August 6 and 20, 2012...
. Livingstone2 was flown as an experiment onboard Earth Observing 1, and an F-18 at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
Dryden Flight Research Center
The Dryden Flight Research Center , located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who at the time of his death in 1965 was NASA's deputy administrator...
.
Beacon Monitor
Another method for reducing DSN burdens is the Beacon Monitor experiment. During the long cruise periods of the mission, spacecraft operations are essentially suspended. Instead of data, the craft emits a carrierCarrier wave
In telecommunications, a carrier wave or carrier is a waveform that is modulated with an input signal for the purpose of conveying information. This carrier wave is usually a much higher frequency than the input signal...
signal on a predetermined frequency. Without data decoding, the carrier can be detected by much simpler ground antennas and receivers. If the spacecraft detects an anomaly, it changes the carrier between four tones, based on urgency. Ground receivers then signal operators to divert DSN resources. This prevents skilled operators and expensive hardware from babysitting an unburdened mission operating nominally. A similar system is used on the New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
Pluto probe to keep costs down during its ten-year cruise from Jupiter to Pluto.
SDST
The Small Deep Space TransponderSmall deep space transponder
The Small Deep Space Transponder is a transponder designed by JPL specifically for deep space probes. It unifies a number of communication functions -...
(SDST) is a compact and light weight radio communications system. Aside from using miniaturized components, the SDST is capable of communicating over the Ka band
Ka band
The Ka band covers the frequencies of 26.5–40 GHz. The Ka band is part of the K band of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. This symbol refers to "K-above" — in other words, the band directly above the K-band...
. Because this band is higher in frequency than bands currently in use by deep-space missions, the same amount of data can be sent by smaller equipment in space and on the ground. Conversely, existing DSN antennas can split time among more missions. At the time of launch, the DSN had a small number of Ka receivers installed on an experimental basis; Ka operations and missions are increasing.
PEPE
Once at a target, DS1 senses the particle environment with the PEPE (Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration) instrument. It maps the objects with the MICAS (Miniature Integrated Camera And SpectrometerSpectrometer
A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization...
) imaging channel, and discerns chemical composition with infrared and ultraviolet channels. All channels share a 10 cm telescope, which uses a silicon carbide
Silicon carbide
Silicon carbide , also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with chemical formula SiC. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. Silicon carbide powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive...
mirror.
Achievements
It was thought that the ion exhaust might interfere with other spacecraft systems, such as radio communications or the science instruments. The PEPE detectors had a secondary function to monitor such effects from the engine. No interference was found.
Another failure was the loss of the star tracker. The star tracker determines spacecraft orientation by comparing the star field to its internal charts. The mission was saved when the MICAS camera was reprogrammed to substitute for the star tracker. Although MICAS is more sensitive, its field-of-view is an order of magnitude smaller, creating a greater information processing burden. Ironically, the star tracker was an off-the-shelf component, expected to be highly reliable.
Without a working star tracker, ion thrusting was temporarily suspended. The loss of thrust time forced the cancellation of a flyby past Comet Wilson-Harrington
107P/Wilson-Harrington
Comet Wilson–Harrington is a periodic comet .Little known about it distinguishes it from other comets, but for the fact that it is also designated an asteroid, 4015 Wilson–Harrington .The comet was discovered on November 19, 1949, by Albert G...
.
The Autonav system required occasional manual corrections. Most problems were in identifying objects that were too dim, or were difficult to identify because of brighter objects causing diffraction spikes and reflections in the camera, causing Autonav to misidentify targets.
The Remote Agent system was presented with three simulated failures on the spacecraft and correctly handled each event.
- a failed electronics unit, which Remote Agent fixed by reactivating the unit.
- a failed sensor providing false information, which Remote Agent recognized as unreliable and therefore correctly ignored.
- an attitude control thruster (a small engine for controlling the spacecraft's orientation) stuck in the "off" position, which Remote Agent detected and compensated for by switching to a mode that did not rely on that thruster.
Overall this constituted a successful demonstration of fully autonomous planning, diagnosis, and recovery.
The MICAS instrument was a design success, but the ultraviolet channel failed due to an electrical fault. Later in the mission, after the star tracker failure, MICAS assumed this duty as well. This caused continual interruptions in its scientific use during the remaining mission, including the Comet Borrelly encounter.
The flyby of the asteroid 9969 Braille
9969 Braille
9969 Braille is a small Mars-crossing asteroid that orbits the Sun once every 3.58 years. It was discovered in 1992 by astronomers at Palomar observatory and later named after Louis Braille, the inventor of the writing system for the blind...
was only a partial success. Deep Space 1 was intended to perform the flyby at 56000 km/h (34,797 mph) at only 240 m (787 ft) from the asteroid. Due to technical difficulties, including a software crash shortly before approach, the craft instead passed Braille at a distance of 26 km (16 mi). This, plus Braille's lower albedo
Albedo
Albedo , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it...
, meant that the asteroid was not bright enough for the autonav to focus the camera in the right direction, and the picture shoot was delayed by almost an hour. The resulting pictures were disappointingly indistinct.
However, the flyby of Comet Borrelly was a great success and returned extremely detailed images of the comet's surface. Such images were of higher resolution than the only previous pictures, of Halley's Comet
Comet Halley
Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the best-known of the short-period comets, and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime...
taken by the Giotto
Giotto mission
Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers....
spacecraft. The PEPE instrument reported that the comet's fields were offset from the nucleus. This is believed to be due to emission of jets, which were not distributed evenly across the comet's surface.
Despite having no debris shields, the spacecraft survived the comet passage intact. Once again, the sparse comet jets did not appear to point towards the spacecraft. Deep Space 1 then entered its second extended mission phase, focused on retesting the spacecraft's hardware technologies. The focus of this mission phase was on the ion engine systems. The spacecraft eventually ran out of hydrazine
Hydrazine
Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the formula N2H4. It is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odor. Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable unless handled in solution. Approximately 260,000 tons are manufactured annually...
fuel for its attitude control thrusters. The highly efficient ion thruster had a sufficient amount of propellant left to perform attitude control in addition to main propulsion, thus allowing the mission to continue.
Current status
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
Braille
9969 Braille
9969 Braille is a small Mars-crossing asteroid that orbits the Sun once every 3.58 years. It was discovered in 1992 by astronomers at Palomar observatory and later named after Louis Braille, the inventor of the writing system for the blind...
and of Comet Borrelly
19P/Borrelly
Comet Borrelly or Borrelly's Comet is a periodic comet, which was visited by the spacecraft Deep Space 1 in 2001.- Discovery :...
, returning valuable science data and images. DS1's ion engines were shut down on 18 December 2001 at approximately 20:00:00 UTC, signaling the end of the mission. However, on-board communications remain active in case the craft is needed in the future.
A proposed alternative end-of-mission plan involved an encounter with the asteroid 1999 KK1 in August 2002. However, cost reasons meant this was not selected.
Statistics
- the mass of the craft: 486.3 kg (1072 lb 2 oz) (with fuel)
- total cost:
- development cost: US$94.8 million
- prime contractor: Spectrum Astro, later acquired by General DynamicsGeneral DynamicsGeneral Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
- launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida
- launch vehicle: Boeing Delta II model 7326Delta IIDelta II was an American space launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II is part of the Delta rocket family and was in service from 1989 until November 1, 2011...
- maximum power: 2,500 W (of which 2,100 W powers the ion thrust engine)
- project manager: Dr. Marc Rayman
External links
- Deep Space 1 website at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
- Deep Space 1 Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
- Remote Agent homepage at NASA Ames Research Center's Intelligent Systems Division
- Deep Space 1 at Encyclopedia AstronauticaEncyclopedia AstronauticaThe Encyclopedia Astronautica is a reference web site on space travel. A comprehensive catalog of vehicles, technology, astronauts, and flights, it includes information from most countries that have had an active rocket research program, from Robert Goddard to the NASA Space shuttle to the Soviet...
- Electric Propulsion at NASA JPL