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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."
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.
sp nigga jigga what
-- insomniac --
... and send the comet crashing into the earth, Lori Petty will rescue Naomi Watts, and they will fight against Malcolm McDowell and save us all from Water and Power!
I think I need to turn off the TV and go outside now...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
As long as Homer Simpson is right, comets could never hurt us, since they will ALWAYS burn up in the atmosphere.
But just in case we need to shoot it down, we'll use Springfield as a calibration target for all global missile systems...
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is the main reason for this project. The "Dirty Snowball" theory of Biological beginnings could be given a comprehensive shot (in the arm or in the head), depending upon the results of this mission.
*sighs*
Only 11 years to wait for the data to come back, we could have been to Mars and back 3 times by then (and I hope we will have)
The sooner we get ourselves (and more importantly, all our heavy, polluting industry) off this planet, the better.
An infinite number of monkeys will eventually come up with the complete works of
one foot is 0.3049m
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!!!
Comets coming from the Oort cloud contain the least contaminated matter from the start of the solar system. Exploring and sampling material from them actually answer a wide variety of questions including matters about the origin of life. Finding amino acids in the sample would imply that life on Earth was not self-generating.
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
Aid agencies estimate 14 million Ethiopians are at risk of starvation after the worst drought in almost two decades. There is no official figure of how many people have already died from drought-related causes. It is guessed that the current death toll is already in the hundreds of thousands. Do you still want to harpoon a comet?
It is criminal negligence that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have died due to lack of food during the current drought affecting Ethiopia. The comet can wait. We have some human brothers and sisters dying in Ethiopia who require our immediate attention.
MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!!!!
TEH SKINNIES ARE VARY HUNGRAY!!!!11
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We're whalers on the moon, We carry a harpoon. But there ain't no whales So we tell tall tales And sing our whaling tune.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Rosetta will inspect two asteroids (Otawara and Siwa) at close quarters."
It's about time that us humans started doing the probing to the aliens!
Second chance for any Heaven's Gate folks that got left behind!
The coolest voice ever.
Last time people tried to meet up with a comet, they ended up dead, and covered with purple cloth.
The spacecraft will be launched in February 2004 from Kourou, French Guiana, using an Ariane-5 G+ launcher....
Couple of days ago there's been another Slashdot story, comets, as always, but if I recall correctly the one mentioned was coming(actually/unfortunately it even had a 0,3% of chance for landing;o(((() somewhere around 2800... Wouldn't that be a more realistic GO! for Ariann????;oP....
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
RIDE THE LIGHTNING!
I thought we were going to pull the comet into the Earth... *breathes a sigh of relief*
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.
READ THIS COMIC NOW!!!
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Your favorite
Sorry my parent post was truncated.
I can think of a few causes for the Europeans to pursue that are nobler than harpooning a comet:
- Stop hating/beating/killing Jews.
- Stifle the creeping statism.
- Stop the moral equivalency and policy of appeasement of thieves and dictators.
- Stop hating the productive countries because you're too fucking busy drinking wine and eating cheese to work as hard as the citizens of more productive countries do who earn their right to be arrogant and wealthy.
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.
Now that I think about it, how do you "harpoon" an asteroid anyways. Are we going to use a thick rope and a spear? Or is Moby Dicking it the wrong way to go?
That is pretty old-fashioned. Today, they use an explosive grenade that explodes on impact. The explosion either knocks the asteroid unconsious or kills it. Then, NASA can pull it into Earth and fire a frickin' laser beam into it to make sure it's dead.
Asteroid conservation organisations are against the harpooning, but have no tangible arguments left. Since asteroids are extremely numerous, and modern catch methods are within animal welfare standards, the conservationists now claim that asteroids have intrinsic rights, Asteroid Rights. Namely:
The right to have their orbital characteristics un-affected other bodies.
The right not to be used as hiding places for space ships or telepaths.
The right to not be blasted by Star Destroyers.
The right to control their own resources, and grant their own mining rights to whoever they choose.
When pressed on who should represent the asteroids and work as mining rights proxies, the conservation organisations said "us".
Suddenly, most space mining companies had changed their status to non-profit organisations.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
No. The velocity is constant, curved space/time is, depending on nearby mass.
v/t=a only applies to Euclidian space.
preach it, brother!
No, I'm in favour of Orbital industry (it makes no sense to put industry at the bottom of a gravity well, when most of where the results of that industry will be needed is in space anyway.
Production of bulk items in space is only economically viable _if_ they are to be used mostly in space. In practice, they'll be used wherever most of the population is. For the forseeable future, this is on earth.
Further, most pollution is from three areas - chemical processing (be it smelting, the plastics industry, or what-have-you), growing crops (fertilizer runoff), and supporting population and industry power consumption (generating electricity, running cars).
If you're planning to move either of the first two into space, you'll have to make them closed-loop processes due to shortage of materials (hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen are hard to come by in the inner solar system; the belt is far enough away to present *serious* transport problems). If you're making these processes closed-loop, you might as well build the same factories on earth, as they will no longer pollute.
The last is tied in considerable part to where your population is (as it's what uses power). That's mostly on earth, due to the difficulty moving the earth's population off-planet.
In summary, unless the population is primarily based in space, I don't believe it would be beneficial to move industry there. Focus on making industry less polluting down here (and on closing the other end of the loop by using landfills as chemical feedstock for manufacturing).
The force known as "Gravity". Specifically, the gravitational attraction between the earth and sun causes the earth to accelerate. That's how fast everything at this distance from the sun accelerates towards the sun.... which the earth is doing continuously.
foot 0.3048
US survey foot 0.3048006096012
modified American foot 0.3048122529845
Clarke's foot 0.3047972651151
Indian foot (Clarke) 0.3047995102481
foot (Sears) 0.3047994715387
...is such a waste of resources, when there's so much here on Earth to harpoon.
I posted this idea half-jokingly a few days ago, I can't believe someone is actually gonna do this. But I got the idea from watching Armaggedon too many times, I can't believe someone is actually investing time and energy into this kooky idea.
Why are hemorrhoids called "hemorrhoids" instead of "asteroids"?
... you start calling the moon, "Luna," in idle conversation.
Come to think of it... the moon is one place where I wouldn't mind living close to work.
*honks*
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
No, no, you've got it all wrong. They're going to look for the Harpoon UFO, which you can also already get here on Earth.
They are not trying to 'harpoon' an asteriod....they are going to an asteriod named 'Harpoon'...after that famous asteriod explorer, Harpoon Dimwitty.
Besides, everyone knows you don't harpoon asteriods. You either use gill nets or C-5 for concussion.
It is not an american spacecraft. NASA is not involved.
"Rosetta will inspect two asteroids (Otawara and Siwa) at close quarters."
I didn't know that Canada's Capitol was an asteroid...
You learn something new everday!
See the forbiden post Here
Acceleration can be represented by a vector. That means that it has a direction and a magnitude.