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NASA Prepares to Launch Comet-Buster

Posted by michael on from the where's-the-kaboom dept.

Chessphoon writes "NASA's Deep Impact, a spacecraft named after the 1998 movie, is scheduled to launch on January 12. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will collide with Comet Tempel 1 six months later on July 4, and create a crater so that the inside of the comet can be analyzed."

2 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is it just me... by fred911 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    " I know that there is no danger"

    That's because you don't live there. What if we're too stupid to recognize a type of life that does?

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  2. Re:What a waste of money by drakethegreat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think you are thinking about it the wrong way. NASA doesn't like to spend more money to send crafts over 1000 times the distance or greater (where other comets might be) but rather would spend money on analyzing a comet right near by. It saves them money actually and because they have never seen the comet up close its possible that its something besides just a big rock. NASA is full of optimists who think that something amazing to learn could be anywhere in the cosmos so they will take the time to look at anything they can. Waste of time, I don't think so.