Lens Assemblies Helped Flyby Spacecraft See Clues About Comet Formation

Rockwell Collins’ precision 38-millimeter lens assemblies played an essential role in NASA’s Deep Impact mission that is aimed at unlocking secrets to the formation of the solar system, according to a company release.

On July 3, the mission’s “impactor” spacecraft crashed into the Tempel 1 comet. The accompanying “flyby” spacecraft recorded the event. Rockwell Collins’ lens assemblies were used on the Ball CT-633 Star Trackers that guided both spacecraft. The lenses also helped record the impact event.

The flyby spacecraft is still operational, pending a new mission, and is currently being navigated toward Earth.

The goal of the Deep Impact mission is to provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet, where material from the solar system’s formation remains relatively unchanged. Mission scientists expect the project to answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system by examining the frozen material that was ejected when the 500-kilogram impactor spacecraft collided with the Tempel 1 comet.

“The success of the Deep Impact star trackers highlights a long-standing relationship between Rockwell Collins and Ball Aerospace & Technologies,” said Jerry Carollo, general manager of Optronics for Rockwell Collins. “This groundbreaking mission is another in a long line of space missions that Rockwell Collins has played a part in. That heritage includes providing the communications equipment that broadcast Neil Armstrong’s famous first words from the surface of the moon.”

FMI: www.rockwellcollins.com