NASA Prepares Deep Space 1

NASA is readying Deep Space 1, its latest creation, for space exploration.

As the launch date approaches, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales profiles this roving laboratory, which powered by a revolutionary propulsion system.

Deep Space 1 is the first spacecraft in NASA's New Millennium Program. Deep Space 1's mission is to first rendezvous with an asteroid, getting as close as perhaps five miles. It will try to pass by an older comet and then a second, much more active comet.

It is not just Deep Space 1's mission that has scientists excited. The whole spacecraft is an experiment with two key types of technologies being tested.

Deep Space 1 is powered by an ion engine, which NASA says is straight out of science fiction. "The first I heard about it was a Star Trek episode in 1967," says Marc Rayman, the mission's chief engineer.

Ion propulsion is about 10 times more efficient than chemical fuel. While the engine thrust is not as powerful, it burns far longer and eventually pushes the craft to about 8000 mile per hour.

The second big experiment allows Deep Space 1 to be the master of its own fate. Deep Space 1 is fitted with a computer navigation program, providing artificial intelligence in the journey. As it charts the stars, Deep Space 1 is its own navigator, changing course as it sees fit.

"These two technologies are like having your car find its own way from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, arrive at a designated parking space, and do it all while getting 300 miles per gallon" says Rayman.

NASA is testing a new radio beacon in the project, but hopes that the self-sufficient Deep Space 1 does not phone home very often.

Deep Space 1 is set to launch Oct. 15. Scientists hope it will be just the first of a new line of autonomous space probes that will explore our solar system in the new millennium.