Module: Small Bodies, Deep Impact
Deep Impact accomplished its first successful mission on July 4, 2005, when the flyby spacecraft released its impactor spacecraft to create the historic encounter with Comet Tempel 1. The flyby spacecraft then skillfully maneuvered away from the comet's debris and has since been orbiting around the sun, awaiting its next assignment. The Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) will send the flyby spacecraft to investigate the surface of comet Hartley 2 on November 4, 2010.
NASA’s Stardust-NExT (New Exploration of Tempel) spacecraft will fly by the comet on Feb. 14, 2011, Valentines’ Day, at 5:42 pm ET. The low-cost Discovery Program Mission of Opportunity will expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft. The mission uses the still-healthy Stardust spacecraft to perform a flyby of comet Tempel 1 and obtain high-resolution images of the comet and hopefully the crater made by Deep Impact in July 2005. The delayed arrival will provide project scientists the best chance of seeing both previously imaged areas and news areas of Tempel 1. By taking photos of previously imaged areas of the comet, scientists can analyze terrain changes caused by the comet’s close approach to the Sun on a successive orbit five and one-half years later.
The DIXI and SD NExt E/PO team offers a variety of online supplementary science resources for formal and informal education audiences that are aligned to national standards and allow students of all ages to engage in inquiry-based, hands-on learning activities.
Activity: Extreme Navigation, Participants take on the roles of a navigation team, spacecraft, comet, Earth, and Sun to simulate how mission planners design a spacecraft/comet rendezvous.
- Teacher Guide (opens as PDF)
- Role Cards (opens as PDF 326 Kb)
- Standards
- Slideshow
Extreme NavigationActivity: Comet on a Stick
The "Comet on a Stick" activity can be used with a wide age range. Participants will see that modeling is continuous in STEM, as is evaluation of those models. Younger participants will learn the basic characteristics of a comet. Older participants will practice evaluation and improvement of the comet model shown. The importance of this activity is not the initial model or its exercise, but the fact that it will put participants in the position of emulating a process that scientists and engineers follow on all NASA missions.
Comet on a Stick 
Comet on a StickActivity: Designed for a Deep Impact: Light Bulb Drop Challenge
Participants will demonstrate an understanding of the challenges of soft landing a sample return capulse from a comet flyby by designing, building and testing their own lightbulb lander. The fragile payload they will be challenged to land safely is the egg or light bulb which must survive a fall of three stories without breaking, when placed in their "descent module" (opens as PDF).
Activity: Team Line-Up
Line-ups (instructions open as PDF) can be used to make small groups and can be used to promote communication and develop concepts. Participants line up according to some pre-established criteria. For example, by birth date (month and year. This activity modeled specific characteristics of a comet (nucleus, coma, dust tail and ion tail).
Comet Model Classroom Formation
