Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA Sweeps Up

Posted by michael on from the foam-on-the-range dept.

corleth writes "The BBC reports that a NASA spacecraft has begun its second phase of collecting interstellar dust grains to be returned to Earth in 2006 for analysis. In 2004, Stardust will rendezvous with comet Wild 2 to collect gas and dust. This will make it the first mission since the Apollo programme to collect and return materials from an extra-terrestrial body. The JPL press release can be found here." The Aerogel that they're using is nifty stuff.

21 comments

  1. Aerogel by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 0
    Aerogel does have some cool properties. For those that don't know, Aerogel is a substance that looks as insubstantial as smoke but is actually stronger than steel (weight for weight). It also has great heat conduction properties that make it an excellent insulator. And, as this article points out, because it is kind of...foamy, it traps small particles well.

    The downside is that, as a gelatin (as in Jello), Aerogel is made out of "animal byproducts". And not the kind of byproduct you can get by just tickling an animal, either--you have to kill them. For instance, the main source of gelatin in the US is horses' hooves. This cruel exploitation is the kind of thing that has given space research a bad name and is why I, in my role as Chairman of the National Science Advisory Board for Social Change, recommended to Bush that he cut space funding by 2/3's this year.

    1. Re:Aerogel by JDALaRose · · Score: 1

      How remarkably short-sighted of you.

    2. Re:Aerogel by Psion · · Score: 2

      Umm...PhysicsGenius, please do the research before you make claims about how Aerogel. It is made from SILICON, like glass or integrated circuits.

  2. Questions by PD · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1) Wasn't there a battery problem a while ago that some thought might prevent the Earth return? Did that problem get resolved?

    2) The spacecraft looks like it's almost halfway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Has there been anything send further from Earth and returned safely? I'd think that the parts of the spacecraft that return should have a place in the Smithsonian.

    --
    If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
    1. Re:Questions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      3) Will Slashdot ever get rid of that Visual Studio .NET ad?

    2. Re:Questions by corleth · · Score: 1
      Has there been anything send further from Earth and returned safely?

      No. I'm not sure, but I think that record is currently set by the Apollo missions.

      I'd think that the parts of the spacecraft that return should have a place in the Smithsonian.

      Agreed.

      -Karl

      P.S. I'm afraid I can't help with the battery problem question. I wasn't following the mission at the time. I can't find any reference to it on the website.

    3. Re:Questions by cra · · Score: 1

      Has there been anything send further from Earth and returned safely?

      Too late at night for reasearch on that right now, but if you count radiowaves, they might have bounced some back from objects more distant.

      --
      This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
  3. oh!!! by jimmytheant · · Score: 1

    I thought, by the subject line, that they might be planning to put up a huge chunk of Aerogel to collect all of the stink'n space debri. Too bad...

  4. Not at all by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 0

    I just don't happen to believe that mere knowledge justifies the torture of innocent creatures. Would it be OK to kill human children in order to figure out how to quickly factor prime numbers?

    1. Re:Not at all by Mt._Honkey · · Score: 2
      Would it be OK to kill human children in order to figure out how to quickly factor prime numbers?
      Your argument sucks. Is it OK to kill humans for meat? No, but I and most of the rest of the world thinks that it's ok to kill animals for meat.

      Anyway, Gelatin doesn't come primarily from Horse Hooves. It is is made from the boiled bones, skins and tendons of animals, which is produced anyway by the meat industry as a byproduct. Get your facts straight before you start ranting.
      --

      Don't Bogart the fish sticks
    2. Re:Not at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Woah, you've fallen for the lamest troll I've ever seen.

    3. Re:Not at all by Mt._Honkey · · Score: 1

      You're right. That's never happened to me before. Wow. It was a well crafted troll though. I guess that whole council thing should have given it away... and the fact that aerogel is made of Si.

      --

      Don't Bogart the fish sticks
    4. Re:Not at all by Dahan · · Score: 2

      Hey, don't be dissing the PhysicsGenius... I bet he's got more PhDs than you do!

  5. Interstellar? by Red+Rocket · · Score: 1

    In order to collect interstellar dust grains, wouldn't the spacecraft have to travel out beyond the heliopause? That's a pretty long trip. I don't think the pioneer or voyager spacecrafts have even made it there yet.

    --
    - Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
    1. Re:Interstellar? by Mt._Honkey · · Score: 2

      I think that the submiter just used the term thinking that it meant "anything in outer space". Interplanetary would be the term to use in this case

      --

      Don't Bogart the fish sticks
    2. Re:Interstellar? by corleth · · Score: 1

      Not true. Interstellar grains are defined based on their past history, and not their present location. Just because they happen to be in interplanetary space does not mean they are not interstellar, i.e. from outside of our solar system. -k

    3. Re:Interstellar? by Mt._Honkey · · Score: 2

      But this is from a comet. Assuming that it comes from the Oort cloud, does that count as interstellar? Is the "border" of our solar system the end of the sun's heliopause? And where is that in relation to the Oort cloud?

      --

      Don't Bogart the fish sticks
    4. Re:Interstellar? by corleth · · Score: 1
      The particles they are collecting are not necessarily from a comet. That phase comes later in the mission. The aim of this mission phase is to collect interstellar dust particles. Check out the BBC article referenced.

      Interstellar, in this case, means from materials that were not involved in the formation of this solar system, i.e. either from another solar system or from whatever background materials accreted to form the various stellar systems in this part of the galaxy.

      Regarding the "border of our solar system", that is probably more a matter of opinion that anything else. Personally I tend to think of it as being the limit of the sun's gravitational well. In other words, if an object is placed at a position with no net momentum (I know, a classical concept) it will tend to accelerate towards our sun if it's within our solar system. In reality, definitions of borders in space is largely futile.

      -Karl

    5. Re:Interstellar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Regarding the "border of our solar system", that is probably more a matter of opinion that anything else. Personally I tend to think of it as being the limit of the sun's gravitational well. In other words, if an object is placed at a position with no net momentum (I know, a classical concept) it will tend to accelerate towards our sun if it's within our solar system. In reality, definitions of borders in space is largely futile.

      That is going to mean a very big solar system...

  6. LA by !splut · · Score: 2

    They need combine this technology with those unmanned military reconnaisance gliders, and deploy about a million of them above LA. Maybe countelss flying hunks of aerogel can start us on the road to recovery after the Bush administration's wussification of the EPA.

    --
    The angel in the oatmeal.