Introduction .
The turn of the new millennium was an amazing time in history. Nearly everyone globally, recognized the drastic technological advances that were being ushered in with the new millennium. NASA realized that "the time was now to pursue the future of spacecraft technology. Many strides had been made since the moon landing in 1969, but NASA was ready to make yet another big one that would kick start the new era. Since no one is able to live long enough to see a millennium from beginning to end, NASA understood that the actions they took in assisting the progression of space exploration would be written in the history books for future generations to see. .
Deep Space 1 .
With NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, having its sights set on exploring all parts of the universe including planets, stars, and whatnot, they realized they would have to put their new technologies to the test in outer space. The New Millennium program by NASA ambitiously looked to make great progress in the space travel department by sending a series of test spacecrafts into orbit. The results of these tests would let NASA know just how far they have come. NASA scientists were eager to find out whether or not the newly developed, advanced, but risky technologies were sound and capable of being used in space travel. Twelve of these technologies in particular were put to the test in the first spacecraft mission of the program known as "Deep Space 1. [3] .
Among some of the technologies anxiously being tested on this unmanned spacecraft were the following: and ion propulsion engine, auto navigation, an auto-repair device, SDST (Small, Deep Space Transponder), a small radio system, MICAS (Miniature Integrated Camera And Spectrometer), PEPE (Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration), SCARLET (Solar Concentrator Array of Refractive Linear Element Technologies), and a Beacon Monitor [2].