Deep Space 1 (DS1) is a project launched by
NASA on October 24, 1998 with a mission to test 12 new
technologies in
space. Namely,
- An ion propulsion system
- Solar concentrator arrays (which power the ion engine]
- An autonomous navigation system, which uses the positions of stars and meteors to reorient the spacecraft.
- A miniature integrated camera and imaging spectrometer
- An ion and electron spectrometer
- A small deep space transponder (built by Motorola).
- A KA-band solid state amplifier.
- Beacon monitor operations, which works as a self-monitoring health meter.
- An autonomous remote agent (An onboard psuedo-AI maintanence system).
- Ultra-low power electronics.
- A power actuation and switching module.
- And multifunctional structures, which involves placing electronics right in a structural panel
It is connected to its NASA mission control center by a 20K/s wireless connection.