Thecitydistrictspacenavigationsystemis closely relevant to people'sdailylife, providesconvenientguidesfor the traffic, andis a significantpart of a city's image.
Although spacecraft instruments are set to return photographs and compositional data, the encounter primarily is a test of Deep Space 1's autonomous navigationsystem, the last of 12 technologies the mission was designed to pioneer.
The UK Space Agency, through its membership of Esa, is now arguing strongly for the Astrium autonomous navigationsystem to be incorporated into the 2018 rover.