Mission

What will DS1 do on its mission?

How does DS1 take pictures?

DS1 has on board a new and experimental camera array called MICAS, which stands for Miniature Integrated Camera Spectrometer. MICAS is mounted directly on DS1, so the only way to aim it is by moving the entire spacecraft around. Regular cameras used on Earth make pictures by letting light chemically change film. In MICAS, the light is recorded digitally as a series of 1's and 0's. This is important because digital information can be downlinked to Earth in radio waves, whereas regular camera film cannot.

In addition to cameras, which record light, there are other ways to make images that record different kinds of electromagnetic radiation. The best example of this on Earth is the special film that can capture heat or infrared rays. DS1 and other spacecraft do different kinds of radiation imaging using a variety of tools.

Sometimes these functions are combined into a single instrument. DS1's MICAS is such a combination. This makes DS1 less massive.


What new technologies are being tested on DS1?
What are radio waves?
What is wavelength?

What will DS1 do when it gets to the asteroid?
What is MICAS?
What is electromagnetic radiation?
What is attitude control?
Why is mass important?

Why will the Sun damage MICAS?
What makes EM radiation?