At full throttle the Deep Space 1 [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] spacecraft's innovative ion drive [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] produces about 1/50th of a pound of thrust ... a force so great that it would just about [ http://www.howstuff…] hold up a piece of paper on planet Earth! Still, powered by solar arrays ion propulsion systems [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] can run continuously. For long duration space missions they ultimately win out [ http://www.jpl.nasa…] over the powerful but brief blasts of less efficient chemical rockets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Deep Space 1 is seen here [ http://www2.jpl.nas…] suspended in an assembly room, a folded solar array [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] resting above the circular ion propulsion module. Already a successful technology [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] demonstrator with experimental autonomous software [ http://rax.arc.nasa…], the spacecraft flew by asteroid 9969 Braille [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in July of 1999 but later that year, in November, the robot probe was nearly lost [ http://www.jpl.nasa…] due to the failure of its wide-field star tracker camera. Now, the adventures of Deep Space 1 can continue. Engineers were able to reprogram the navigation system to utilize another on-board camera and on 28 June 2000 the ion drive was throttled up. Once again steering [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] by the stars, Deep Space 1 is presently bound [ http://science.nasa…] for a September 2001 rendezvous with periodic Comet Borrelly [ http://comets.amsme…].
Explanation
At full throttle the Deep Space 1 [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] spacecraft's innovative ion drive [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] produces about 1/50th of a pound of thrust ... a force so great that it would just about [ http://www.howstuff…] hold up a piece of paper on planet Earth! Still, powered by solar arrays ion propulsion systems [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] can run continuously. For long duration space missions they ultimately win out [ http://www.jpl.nasa…] over the powerful but brief blasts of less efficient chemical rockets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Deep Space 1 is seen here [ http://www2.jpl.nas…] suspended in an assembly room, a folded solar array [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] resting above the circular ion propulsion module. Already a successful technology [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] demonstrator with experimental autonomous software [ http://rax.arc.nasa…], the spacecraft flew by asteroid 9969 Braille [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in July of 1999 but later that year, in November, the robot probe was nearly lost [ http://www.jpl.nasa…] due to the failure of its wide-field star tracker camera. Now, the adventures of Deep Space 1 can continue. Engineers were able to reprogram the navigation system to utilize another on-board camera and on 28 June 2000 the ion drive was throttled up. Once again steering [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa…] by the stars, Deep Space 1 is presently bound [ http://science.nasa…] for a September 2001 rendezvous with periodic Comet Borrelly [ http://comets.amsme…].
