MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - A space probe with research equipment and a CD carrying names of 625,000 people including 5 RIA Novosti journalists is set to collide with the Tempel-1 comet on July 4.
The worldwide Internet campaign to register people wishing to go down in the space exploration history ended on January 31, 2004. The CD was put inside the probe which was installed on the Deep Impact-1 spacecraft. Deep Impact blasted off in January from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its six-month 431-million-kilometer journey.
The probe is set to collide with the comet at a relative speed of 40,000kph. According to NASA experts, the probe will make a crater in Tempel-1 and let them study the ice surface of the comet.
As the comet closes in, the probe will transmit images of its target to the Deep Impact spacecraft. NASA's space telescopes Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra will observe the collision, as well.
