Deep Impact camera blurry
Posted: Fri, Mar 25, 2005, 7:27 PM ET (0027 GMT)
Images taken by the camera on NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft are slightly out of focus, NASA announced Friday, although the space agency downplayed the problem. In a mission status report issued Friday afternoon, NASA said that images taken by the spacecraft's High Resolution Instrument (HRI) during post-launch tests revealed that the camera had not reached perfect focus. The test images were taken after a "bake out" procedure that heated the camera to remove residual moisture from its barrel. Project officials said a team is looking into the problem, which will not affect the spacecraft's encounter with comet Tempel 1 in July. Even if the camera's focus does not improve from its current state, scientists said that the camera will still provide the best images to date of a comet. Deep Impact, launched in January, will fly past the comet while an impactor probe separates from the main spacecraft to collide with the comet's nucleus on July 4.
Images taken by the camera on NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft are slightly out of focus, NASA announced Friday, although the space agency downplayed the problem. In a mission status report issued Friday afternoon, NASA said that images taken by the spacecraft's High Resolution Instrument (HRI) during post-launch tests revealed that the camera had not reached perfect focus. The test images were taken after a "bake out" procedure that heated the camera to remove residual moisture from its barrel. Project officials said a team is looking into the problem, which will not affect the spacecraft's encounter with comet Tempel 1 in July. Even if the camera's focus does not improve from its current state, scientists said that the camera will still provide the best images to date of a comet. Deep Impact, launched in January, will fly past the comet while an impactor probe separates from the main spacecraft to collide with the comet's nucleus on July 4.
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