The Deep Space 1 spacecraft completed a successful pass by an asteroid about ten days ago, and presented scientists with a new reflection regarding the "family tree" of the small bodies in outer space.
Avi Blizovsky
The original version before publication in "Haaretz". August 11, 99
The Deep Space 1 spacecraft completed a successful pass by an asteroid about ten days ago, and presented scientists with a new reflection regarding the "family tree" of the small bodies in outer space.
Deep Space 1 flew by asteroid Braille with serial number 9969 on July 29. The spacecraft's infrared sensors confirmed that the small asteroid closely resembles one of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt - Vesta, a rare type of asteroid that moves between Jupiter and Mars.
The clear connection between Vesta and Braille is an extremely important finding, says Dr. Lawrence Soderblom of the US Geological Survey and a member of the spacecraft's test team. "Scientists are now faced with a difficult question: Is the Braille asteroid, very close to the Earth, a chip left over from the building materials from which Vesta was built, or are they both sister asteroids that were formed as one body and perhaps both were torn from a larger body that was destroyed a long time ago?
The scientists based their findings using three types of sensors that transmitted the information to the infrared camera. These devices broke the light into its component colors like a prism.
The long side of Braille is estimated to be 2.2 kilometers long and the short side is 15 kilometer long. The scientists predicted that because the asteroid was elongated it should have an irregular rotation, and two images taken about XNUMX minutes after the approach of the spacecraft helped to confirm this information.
Discovered in 1807, Bhatama Vesta has a diameter of 500 kilometers, the fourth asteroid ever discovered, Luste and Braille have the same intensity of light reflection, in fact Vesta is the brightest asteroid in the central asteroid belt. Apart from the findings from the approach flight, project scientists estimate that within 4,000 years, Braille will join hundreds of other asteroids drifting into an orbit outside the orbit of Earth - the nearest large body.
As mentioned, the spacecraft approached on July 29 at 19:46 Israel time to a distance of 26 kilometers from the face of the asteroid. It was launched on October 24, 1994 as the first mission in the New Millennium program, which was designed to test new technologies for future space missions. The technologies tested in "Deep Space 1" will help scientists develop smaller, cheaper spacecraft with higher capabilities and with the possibility of autonomous decision-making, so that they will be less dependent on navigation from control stations on the ground. Besides the independent navigation system, it is also testing a unique drive system. It is powered in space by a revolutionary ion engine.
The spacecraft moves forward by emitting a blue trail of ionized xenon gas atoms, whose emission speed is 104,600 km/h. Although the thrust exerted by its propulsion system is less than the size of a sheet of paper, it will accelerate its speed by 24 to 32 km/h per day. NASA said that the ion drive system, powered by electricity produced by solar panels and xenon gas that the spacecraft carries, is 10 times more efficient than conventional rockets. The system only works in the vacuum that prevails in outer space. The engine caused several problems, but in the end NASA personnel overcame them, by operating the engine at a lower power, but for many days.
The spacecraft continues on its way to rendezvous with two comets and will also pass by the planet Mars next year.
