Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Comet Hunting Craft Closes on Target

Posted by michael on from the be-vewwy-vewwy-qwiet dept.

JayBonci writes "According to a CNN article (also ScienceDaily), NASA's comet-hunting craft as part of the Stardust mission has sighted the comet early. This will make it easier to complete their plan of bringing a sample of the dust left behind by the comet's icy tail back home to earth. The mission homepage is here."

3 of 16 comments (clear)

  1. that's alot of excitement by theMerovingian · · Score: 2, Funny


    for something that looks like this.

    --
    "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
  2. ISS? by moosesocks · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be easier for the spacecraft to dock with the ISS, and return the samples to earth via. the next Soyuez capsule? It seems silly to need to build a craft capable of re-entry when it doesn't need to...

    --
    -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    1. Re:ISS? by isaac · · Score: 4, Informative
      Wouldn't it be easier for the spacecraft to dock with the ISS, and return the samples to earth via. the next Soyuez capsule? It seems silly to need to build a craft capable of re-entry when it doesn't need to...

      I'm certain it's considerably easier to build a capsule with an ablative heat shield capable of reentry than to build a craft with enough maneuvering fuel to match the orbit of ISS for a complicated recovery of the sort you propose.

      With this design, the craft doesn't have to match orbits with a very small and very fast target - it just has to hit Utah. The latter is considerably easier, especially as there aren't any squishy humans inside who can't tolerate deceleration forces greater than a few dozen G.

      -Isaac

      --
      I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.