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Mission to Harpoon Comet is Back on Track

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."

8 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Freedom Post (Fuck the French) by Fecal+Troll+Matter · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Afghanistan: Today it's a patchwork of local fiefdoms, mostly run by former militia leaders or warlords. The Taleban have regrouped in rural areas of the south, and there has recently been an upsurge in violence around the city of Kandahar. Many Western aid workers have left the area in fear for their lives.
    Osama bin Laden: Whereabouts unknown.
    Iraq: Reports of raw sewage flowing through the streets of Baghdad; Looting of cities have left hospitals without drugs and equipment.
    Saddam Hussein: Whereabouts unknown.
    Donald Rumsfeld: Like Han Blix, he only needed more time to uncover WMD. Now, during a speech in New York, he claims that Iraq may have destroyed these weapons before the invasion had begun.
    George W. Bush: Puppet? His core supporters, the Christian Right and hardline Republicans, are fervent supporters of the State of Israel. Despite promises during his original campaign to avoid Clinton's Middle Eastern follies, Mr. Bush travels to Jordan next week to meet with Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers. That being said, prepare for an end to "The War Against Terrorism" and make way for election 2004's "Peace in the Mid East or Die" reelection campaign.

  2. Funften posten! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    l;dsafjsakfl;jsl;fkjaslk;fjalsk;jflksa;jf;dlksjfd

    asdf

  3. Dumbest idea EVAR by unterderbrucke · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    As a rudimentary physics student, even I can tell you that if we harpoon this asteroid from earth, the asteroid will exert just enough force to pull earth out of it's orbit!

    Very simple
    F = MxA
    F = 194251kg X 30000 kmh
    F = 5827530000 newtons ASTEROID

    F = MxA
    F = 252415kg x 1500 kmh
    F = 38122500 newtons EARTH

    5827530000 > 38122500
    Force of Asteroid > Force of Earth!!!

  4. I didn't know Scorpion was working for nasa. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!!!!

  5. Re:Some perspective on hooking a comet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Another death, even more tragic than the Ethiopian situation is occuring closer to home:

    It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying

  6. FUNNY!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    READ THIS COMIC NOW!!!
    Comic.gif

    1. Re:FUNNY!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Who modded this down???

      SHOW YOURSELF!!!!

  7. Re:and if they screw up... sex! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Once upon a time whilst walking in a park I asked a geek "Do you have a girlfriend?". He responded with a very puzzled look. "A girlfriend?," he mused, "Who is the developer?". I chuckled and told him this was not an open source project. He then became slightly angry and inquired, "Are you trying to insult me? Only the best geeks use open source only! What planet are you living on?!". I reassured him I was well aware of his integrity as a geek (white skin, clumsy, pants that are too short, lack of daily shower, pocket protector etc), and explained, "A girlfriend is a female who to a male (most oftenly a male) has an intimate friendship." He gave me a very confused look. "I have never heard of such a thing.. this.. g-g-irlfriend?" He asked me, sounding very baffled. "I have heard of friends before, those pets other people have. But what is this thing you say.. Grill?". "Girl," I corrected. Then I asked him to sit down on a bench nearby so I could explain it too him, the poor, helpless thing. I told him that for human beings to reproduce, sexual intercourse must occur between a male and a female. "Perhaps you hear the trolls mention a thing called "pussy" on slashdot?". The geek burst into laughter, "Haha, you have been browsing at -1 lately, haven't you? You know that is just troll talk. Those silly trolls never have anything intelligent to say."

    My face turned serious. "My dear geek, are you not aware of the female population amongst you? Do you not stare in the street and want to hump a post when you pass by a hot, slim, gorgeous looking chick with a firm bust and well sculpted ass?". The geek immediately began to appear as if he was having a nervous breakdown. His glasses began to fog up and he took them off to wipe them with this linux embroidered shirt, "I think I know what you are talking about. Those things are icky. They have cooties. Get away from me!" I felt offended. "Nonsense, I pleaded! Pussy is a beautiful thing. A sacred thing that you should strive to give pleasure to." The geek would not listen and he began to cry. "STOP IT!! You are EVIL!!" He then, quite geekishly, skipped off down the path.

    I walked back to my house feeling rather disheartened. 'Why don't they listen to me' I asked myself? When I got home my girlfriend opened the door. She was wearing short-shorts and a sports bra. She had been doing the thigh master for the past 30 minutes and was sweating. I could see her dark nipples underneath her slightly damp bra. Oh god I could fuck her to the moon and back. I could smell her horniness the second I took my shoes off. I chased her, both of us laughing, to our bedroom [THE FOLLOWING has been censored for the well-being of geeks].... Six hours later, finally satisfied a little, I sat up and noticed that same geek hiding in the trees. He had been watching us the entire time. I swear his penis had to have been the size of a fucking horse cock (not bad for a geek, i might add), and he appeared as if he had gone into a state of shock. I could see cum stains forming near the bulge of his pant zipper. I thought to myself. There is one geek, finally brought into the real world.