Small Bodies Mission Support

Mission Description

The EPOXI Mission is the combination of two independently proposed scientific investigations using the flyby spacecraft of the Deep Impact mission:

• EPOCh (Extrasolar Planet Observation and CHaracterization) will utilize the high-resolution Visible CCD and Infrared Spectrometer on the flyby spacecraft from January through August 2008 to:
  • Observe transits by known extrasolar planets (hot Jupiters) to search for perturbations due to terrestrial planets in low-order resonances,
  • Search those systems for secondary occulations of the hot Jupiter by the star, and
  • Characterize the Earth as a remotely sensed planet.

• DIXI (Deep Impact eXtended Investigation) consists of a flyby of comet 103P/Hartley 2 in October 2010 to study a second comet with the same set of instruments as was used by Deep Impact at comet 9P/Tempel 1.

The timeline for the EPOXI mission is:

Phases and Events	Start Date	Stop Date
Cruise 1 Earth Flyby In-Flight Calibrations	2007-09-01 2007-12-31 2007-10-04	2008-01-21 2007-12-31 2008-01-21
EPOCh Extrasolar Planet Observations Earth Observations In-Flight Calibrations	2008-01-22 2008-01-22 2008-03-20 2008-01-22	2008-06-13 2008-05-28 2008-08-31 2008-08-13
Cruise 2 In-Flight Calibrations	2008-09-01 2008-09-01	2010-08-10 2010-08-10
DIXI Hartley 2 Approach Hartley 2 Encounter In-Flight Calibrations	2010-08-11 2010-08-11 2010-10-11 2010-08-11	2010-11-11 2010-10-10 2010-10-11 2010-11-11

The EPOXI Mission web site including a mission status report is maintained by the University of Maryland, College Park.

For information about the Deep Impact mission, the flyby spacecraft and its instruments, visit the Deep Impact Legacy site at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Deep Impact data archived at the SBN are available here.

The SBN is the lead PDS node to archive the EPOXI mission data. The mission (not SBN) will also deliver PDS-formatted EPOCh data to the Multi-Mission Archive at the Space Science Telescope Institute. The approved EPOXI Data Management and Archive Plan is available as a PDF file (816 KB).

Use PDS Subscription Service to receive an e-mail notification when EPOXI data sets are available online at PDS.
 

Instrument/Investigation Description	Measuring
High Resolution Instrument, Infrared Spectrometer (HRII)	Extra-solar planet transits; Earth as a remotely sensed planet; Cometary surface and gas composition
High Resolution Instrument, Visible CCD (HRIV)	Extra-solar planet transits; Earth as a remotely sensed planet; Cometary morphology and outgassing; Navigation imaging
Medium Resolution Instrument, Visuble CCD (MRI)	Context imaging for EPOCh Earth observations; Cometary morphology and outgassing; Navigation imaging
Navigation (SPICE)	Pointing, spacecraft ephemerides, and other ancillary information
Radio Science (RSS)	Dust drag during comet flyby

Instrument/ Investigation Description	Target	Description of Available Data	Data Link
No data available yet

Target	Target Type	Other Data Sets Targeting this Object
Extrasolar Planets (to be determined)	Planet
Earth (remote sensing)	Planet
103P/Hartley 2	Short-period Comet