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Mission to Harpoon Comet is Back on Track

Posted by michael on from the go-go-go dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Rosetta mission planners have announced today that after an indefinite launch delay earlier this year, their goal of landing on a comet is back on track. Their new baseline target is a rendezvous with the comet, Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in November 2014. En route to the comet, Rosetta will inspect two asteroids (Otawara and Siwa) at close quarters."

1 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Tip for NASA by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful
    one foot is 0.3049m

    You're off by one digit; if you aim for a comet 1 billion miles away, you're going to miss it by 100,000 miles.

    Plus, it's not that simple. You have to decide if you're using standard feet (.3048 meter) or U.S. survey feet (0.3048006096012 meter). You might still miss the comet by 600 miles.