| .....The objectives of
the Deep Impact mission are to rendezvous
with comet P/Tempel 1, launch a
projectile into the comet nucleus, and
observe the resulting ejecta, much of
which will represent pristine material
from the interior of the comet, and the
crater formation process and resulting
crater. This project was selected as a
Discovery class mission in July, 1999. .....The
spacecraft consists of a 500 kg
cylindrical copper impactor attached to a
flyby bus. The spacecraft is a box-shaped
framework with a flat rectangular Whipple
shield mounted on one side to protect
components during comet close approach.
Mounted on the framework are one high-
and one medium-resolution instrument,
each of which consists of an imaging
camera and an infrared spectrometer which
will be used to observe this ejected ice
and dust, much of which will be exposed
to space for the first time in over 4
billion years. The medium resolution
camera has a field of view
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