From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Apr 04 2003 - 09:21:14 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 7:37 PM
To: ljk4_at_msn.com
Subject: NASA's Deep Space 1 Team Receives National Award
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
DC Agle (818) 393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Don Savage (202) 358-1727
NASA Headquarters, Washington D.C.
News Release: 2003-044
March 31, 2003
NASA's Deep Space 1 Team Receives National Award
The team that developed and flew NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft will
receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics'
prestigious Space Systems Award. The award will be presented on April
2, 2003, during the Responsive Space Conference in Redondo Beach,
Calif.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is honoring the
Deep Space 1 team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif., "For the outstanding performance of the team during design,
implementation, test, operations, and extended mission including space
flight test of 12 important, high-risk technologies."
"It is rather unexpected," said Marc Rayman, who was a project manager
for Deep Space 1 at JPL. "People usually do not come to work here for
the recognition. Rather, they're here because they think space
exploration is exciting. Our reward is to get to participate in a
grand adventure. How many jobs
do you get to do that? On the other hand, it is great to be recognized
for our hard work by one's peers."
The work began in 1995, when NASA chose JPL to design and build a
spacecraft that would flight-test new, cutting-edge systems the agency
wanted to consider for future space missions. Launched on Oct. 24,
1998, the 486-kilogram (1071 pound) spacecraft was designed and built
in just three years. Soon after reaching space, Deep Space 1 began
testing 12 different trailblazing technologies. Among those were an
ion engine; an autonomous navigation system that computed and
corrected Deep Space 1's course without intervention of human
controllers on Earth; and a solar array that concentrated sunlight for
extra power.
All 12 high-risk technologies checked out so well that NASA extended
the mission so it could visit one of the solar system's least
understood inhabitants, a comet. But before the spacecraft could get
there, its all-important star tracker failed. From 300 million
kilometers (185 million
miles) away, the Deep Space 1 team successfully analyzed the problem,
reconfigured the computer and developed a new way to pilot the
spacecraft.
On Sept. 22, 2001, Deep Space 1 took the most detailed pictures of a
comet nucleus to date. The images and other scientific data of comet
Borrelly are used by planetary scientists and mission planners
preparing for future comet missions.
After the Borrelly flyby, NASA extended the mission so the team could
run the spacecraft's cutting-edge technologies through an even more
exotic, demanding series of tests. On Dec. 18, 2001, after more than
three years in space and two trips around the Sun, the Deep Space 1
team sent one final set of instructions, the spacecraft's radio
transmitter was switched off and NASA's record-shattering Deep Space 1
mission ended.
"I think you can compare Deep Space 1 with the X-15 rocket plane that
was flight-tested in the 60s," Rayman said. "Just as the X-15 paved
the way for future aerospace vehicles like the Shuttle, Deep Space 1
paved the way for future spacecraft that will take us to Mars, Jupiter
and beyond, and accomplished some exciting scientific discoveries
along the way."
JPL managed the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena
manages JPL for NASA. Spectrum Astro Inc., Gilbert, Ariz., was JPL's
primary industrial partner in spacecraft development.
More information about NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft is available on
the Internet, at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/past/deepspace1.html.
For more information about NASA's space and science programs on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/
-end-
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