Futuristic Spacecraft Begins Quest to Test Technology

A spacecraft that is equipped with an ion engine and can think for itself rocketed away from Earth on Saturday on a quest to test technologies straight out of “Star Trek.”

NASA’s Deep Space 1 soared through clouds aboard an unmanned rocket, bound for an asteroid 120 million miles away.

“This is a terrific beginning,” said Marc Rayman, chief engineer and deputy mission manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

The launch kicked off NASA’s New Millennium program of “high risk, high payoff” technology missions that the space agency hopes will lead to frequent, affordable trips into space.

Besides the ion-propulsion engine, Deep Space 1 is flying 11 other futuristic technologies, including a self-navigating system, powerful lens-covered solar wings and a radio beacon designed to inform ground controllers how the spacecraft is doing without being asked.

“Deep Space 1 is taking the risks so that future missions don’t have to,” Rayman said.

Although ion engines have flown before, Deep Space 1 is the first deep-space probe to rely on such a device for primary propulsion. Ground controllers plan to fire up the engine in a few weeks, once they’re sure everything is working.

The ion engine will provide the extra kick needed for the drum-shaped spacecraft, which weighs more than 1,000 pounds, to rendezvous with asteroid 1992 KD next July. It will travel an estimated 450 million miles before catching up with the moving, mountain-sized rock.

The autonomous navigation system will guide Deep Space 1, managers hope, to within 6 miles of the asteroid. Artificial intelligence in this system will allow the spacecraft to take charge of some of its own commanding.

If it weren’t for the ion engine, Deep Space 1 would need 10 times more fuel to reach the asteroid. As it is, the spacecraft carries a scant 180 pounds of xenon gas to run the engine, reducing the size of the probe and, consequently, the cost of the $152-million mission.

Here’s how the solar-powered ion engine will work: Xenon gas is bombarded by electrons. The resulting xenon ions are drawn toward high-voltage grids and spewed into space at more than 62,000 mph. The xenon ions provide constant acceleration for months, even years.