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Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington        May 8, 2003                                
                               
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

DC Agle 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.                             
(Phone: 818/393-9011)

Lee Tune
University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
(Phone: 301/405-4679)

RELEASE: 03-161

YOUR NAME COULD MAKE A "DEEP IMPACT" ON A COMET

 People worldwide may celebrate July 4, 2005, as the day 
their names reach a comet. NASA is launching a campaign to 
send hundreds of thousands of names to comet Tempel 1. 

The names will be carried on board NASA's Deep Impact 
spacecraft, the first deep-space mission designed to really 
reach out and touch a comet. Mission scientists are 
confident an impact on a comet's nucleus will answer basic 
questions about the nature and composition of these 
celestial wanderers.

"This is an opportunity to become part of an extraordinary 
space mission," said Dr. Don Yeomans, an astronomer at JPL, 
a member of Deep Impact's science team. "When the craft is 
launched in December 2004, yours and the names of your 
loved-ones can hitch along for the ride and be part of what 
may be the best space fireworks show in history."
    
Deep Impact's larger flyby spacecraft will carry a smaller 
impactor spacecraft to Tempel 1 for release into the comet's 
path for a planned collision. The flyby spacecraft will take 
pictures as the 370-kilogram (816 pound) copper-tipped 
impactor plunges into Tempel 1 at about 37,000 kilometers 
(22,990 miles) per hour. The impactor is expected to make a 
spectacular, football field-sized crater, seven to 15 
stories deep, in the speeding comet. Carried aboard the 
impactor will be a standard mini-CD containing the names of 
comet, space, and other enthusiasts from around the world. 

"This campaign will allow people from around the world to
become directly involved with Deep Impact and through that 
get them thinking about the scientific reasons for the 
mission," said University of Maryland (UM) astronomy 
professor Michael A'Hearn, Deep Impact's principal 
investigator. "We particularly hope to capture the interest 
of young students, as they will become the explorers of the 
next generation."

People may submit their names for this historic one-way 
mission by visiting NASA's Deep Impact Web site, from May 
2003 to February 2004, at:

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/

The collision between the impactor and Tempel 1 is not 
forceful enough to make an appreciable change in the comet's 
orbital path around the sun. The comet poses no threat to 
Earth.

Deep Impact was selected in 1999 as a NASA Discovery 
mission. The goal of the Discovery Program is to launch many 
smaller missions with fast development times, each for a 
fraction of the cost of NASA's larger missions. The main 
objective is to enhance our understanding of the Solar 
System by exploring the planets, their moons, and small 
bodies, such as comets and asteroids.
 
The UM is the home of Deep Impact's principal investigator, 
Michael A'Hearn, who oversees scientific investigations. 
Project manager, John McNamee, from JPL, manages and 
operates the Deep Impact mission for NASA's Office of Space 
Science, Washington. JPL is managed for NASA by the 
California Institute of Technology Pasadena, Calif. John 
Marriott, Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp., manages the 
spacecraft development in Boulder, Colo.

Information about the Deep Impact mission is available on 
the Internet at: 

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/.

A mirror site is available at: http://deepimpact.umd.edu

For information about NASA and other space flight missions 
on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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