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[44.01] Change in Deep Impact Instrument performance due to passage through the Tempel 1 coma, and implications for future cometary mission.

D. L. Hampton (Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.), Deep Impact Team

A key mission design of the Deep Impact mission was to pass through the orbital plane of the comet after the critical imaging was complete. This reduced the chance that the optical performance of the instruments would be degraded due to particle impacts for the images of greatest importance to the mission. After the spacecraft has passed the comet and emerged from its shield mode, and after a series of look-back imaging sessions, the instruments will be calibrated looking at the same targets used for the pre-impact calibrations. This provides an opportunity to measure the degradation of the optical performance of the instruments. In this presentation we will show the instrument performance throughout the mission and describe the overall change in performance due to passing through the coma of comet Tempel 1.

Supported by NASA contract NASW00004 to the University of Maryland.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.