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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.

7 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. 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.

  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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!