On 4 July 2005, NASA's Deep Impact mission (PI Mike A'Hearn, Univ.
Maryland) will deliver a 360kg impactor to comet 9P/Tempel 1 at
10.2 km/s. The goal of this mission is to dig beneath the surface of
a comet and look at the pristine interior.  This will have important
implications for comet science, planetary formation and astrobiology,
as well as being of interest to the cratering community.  The results
of the impact should be readily observable from Earth and good
observations from Earth will provide unique information about the
interior properties of a cometary nucleus. Although the flyby
spacecraft of the Deep Impact mission will make unique in situ
measurements, the constraints of space missions limit us to imaging and
near-infrared spectroscopy.  We are further constrained to an 800-sec
interval from time of impact until the flyby spacecraft has flown past
the point of observability of the impact site.  The mission has been
designed to provide good observing conditions from Earth and we are
encouraging a wide range of observations from before the event (to
establish a baseline of behavior over a week or more) until long after
the event (since long-lived changes in the behavior are a plausible
outcome).

A unique important aspect of the mission is the Earth ground- and
space- based observing support for the mission, both for establishing
the pre-impact baselines and to coordinate observers for maximal
scientific yield at the time of encounter and immediately following.
The mission team has a baseline prediction of what might happen, but
experts on the physics of cratering disagree on what physics to apply
to the impact, which is why the experiment is a particularly important
one to do.  This means that the Earth-based observations might be
anywhere from spectacular to null results and that the exciting results
may appear in unexpected wavelength regimes or with unexpected
techniques.  This leads us to urge the use of as many different
techniques as possible.

To this end, K. Meech, the Deep Impact science team member in charge of
the coordination of the Earth-based observing, has been conducting 1
day workshops about the mission around the world to coordinate the
observations.  We will be hosting a Deep Impact workshop at the
Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University on September
6, 2004.  The purpose of the workshop will be:

1.  To update the community on the status of the mission and the science
    goals.

2.  To discuss the key ground support observations that we will
    need at various wavelengths at the time of encounter.

3.  To dicuss the unique capabilities of facilities in Australia
    to participate in the Deep Impact science.

Talks will include:

Meech "The NASA Deep Impact Mission"

Meech "Coordinating the Earth-based observations for Deep Impact"

Bailey "Optical/R Observing possibilities for Deep Impact"

TBA  "Radio Observing possibilities for Deep Impact"