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NASA Prepares to Launch Comet-Buster
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."
Yes, I read TFA. I know that there is no danger. But those crazy scientists in the movies always think they are safe too.
Photography, technology, and my dog Scout - http://mattstratton.com
IMO, why waste money to see the content of a comet? There are so many better things to learn and explore in this great cosmos of ours.
I really think they will be sorely disappointed when they discover the comet is really some rock covered with ice.
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
What if the comets retaliate by impacting Earth?
"There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them." ~ Louis Armstrong
The NASA project was *not* named after the movie. Read http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/01/01/comet.bus ter.ap/index.html
for the real story.
From a previous slashdot article.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
course with earth and we have to figure out how to nudge it off course, the data this mission gathers will be invaluable.
The ass we save may be our own.
--Rob
$1,000,000 says it doesn't.
I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a whole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension, a dimension of pure chaos, pure evil
it'd take a bigger impact for her to feel it.
[thunk] [thunk] [thunk] Any nerves not insulated by silicone?
--Rob
What does gameguidesonline have to do with NASA?
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Uh-oh, better call Maaco!
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
NASA should have considered planning this mission to be a near-flyby. Given their record of hitting what they aim to miss and missing what they aim to hit...
Everybody's a libertarian 'till their neighbour's becomes a crack house.
it would have been better still with Natalie Portman...covered in hot grits, of course
nothing.can.stop.me.now
They should get the ESA to oversee/launch this mission. They seem to have no problem impacting their spacecraft.
smile
Wheras the pioneer spacecraft carried media of human genome, voices, sounds, animals, how the world workewd, this mission needed to crater a giant comet.
Therefore, the media stored on board consists of Gigli, Ishtar, Hudson hawk, Battlefield Earth, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
I read that as Natalie Portman...covered in hot girls, of course.
I was about to mod it -1, Redundant.
Can the editors get a clue, as said in other articles else where on the net, the name DEEP IMPACT was determined about the same time as the movie title was, but was 100% a coincedence and not chosen because of a movie.
Yes a small anal point, but jeez, you guys fail basic Journalism 101 class dudes.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
What a great gesture of intergallactic diplomacy.
We send out a spacecraft with a plaque theorizing someone could intercept it. Do we think hurling a bomb is any less likely to be found by an alien civilization?
Because if all comets are NOT ice, but just normal asteroids that generate massive plasma/electric charges, then that changes *ALL* theories on how the earth/solar system was evolved, and that throws out other derived theories, and then it makes more new ones, which would lead to more discoveries and finally allowing you to get your anti-gravity device to get to the moon. OK.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Why do people still insist that there is a difference between "BIG BUSINESS" and the "government" that we currently have in this and many other countries?
Are we not being currently run like a company, wasn't that touted when we elected (selected if you like) the first "CEO" president/Harvard Business school graduate? Do you ACTUALLY think that the "government" is building and running these programs? Those government workers are actually getting the bloated paychecks? It's BIG BUSINESS! And, the last time I checked, the two largest government run agencies or programs made a profit last year - the good ole' U.S. Post Office (THEY want to privatize it, darn, if it could only lose money for a while) and Social Security, which never missed a payment, has enough money to maintain solvency to 2052 (and then would still be able to meet obligations up to 80% of it's current payments) and has been the most successful GOVERNMENT program in history (ask all the presidents from LBJ to Baby Bush who have "borrowed" and left IOUs and continued to borrow from the system). Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the argument is that it is a part of the general fund, therefore the money can be use for any purpose. But tell me this, how can we use the money for the General Fund when it's there, yet not help out the program FROM the general Fund when it needs it? Why does it then have to stand alone as a self-funding program?) To continue, both these programs are genuinely for the greater good of society. And both are being targeted for privatization. Along with all the overgrown, hazardous trees that are causing all the fire hazards in our National Parks. Yes, BIG BUSINESS would run it better. And before you go point to the example of the Millau bridge in France being built with "private" funds and for only an estimated 394m euros ($524 U.S.), instead of the billions that that the erstwhile Bay Bridge is costing in San Francisco. Remember your fables: "The devil WILL get is due!" The company(s) that built the bridge have a contract for 75 years to collect fees. How many times will this private corporation raise fees? What happens when it can't meet its obligation to repair the bridge, because their calculated fees aren't high enough or the public balks at paying them? Will the "government" then simply close the bridge? No, they will come in and "bail" out this private "BIG BUSINESS" to keep the bridge safe and operating. Instead of letting this private sector enterprise simply fail. Just ask the "private, BIG BUSINESS" airlines in the U.S.
Sorry for the rant, but of course business is a part of the success of the U.S. and the world, not the end-all and be-all. It has always been thought of as a partnership. That is why the founders of this "democracy" put such constraints on commerce; they saw the dangers as well as the reward. Unfortunately, BIG BUSINESS as risen to such heights, that more than likely, it will choke on it's own greed and take the rest of us with it.
Regards, A small business owner!
Bruce Willis was in Armageddon, not Deep Impact.
"NASA's Deep Impact, a spacecraft named after the 1998 movie"
...and next year the "Preparation H" will probe an asteroid. It will be the first spacecraft in history entirely covered in latex.
Send an I-pod instead. That might survive. If it doesn't get stolen en-route.
Meta will eat itself
I wonder if they will send it up squeakey clean biologically or if they will let it fly full of microbes so that we can have a chance at seeding another planet with our wonderfully fruity DNA.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
She thinks that the NASA is just hiding the fact that the comet is about to hit us and is dangerous so they decided to blow it up but masked the attempt as a scientific experiment.
:)
(and before you, smartasses, ask me, yes, she is a girl
You can't handle the truth.
So, blow up a chunk of what we expect to be ice and rock... just to confirm that it is, indeed. Ice and rock. Maybe it's magic space rock! i think this project might just be:
a.) a geologists wet dream
b.) a way for nasa to prove it can do something right, and get more money. (1.) Shoot missle at comet. 2.)?? 3.) Government Funding!)
The Titan project (forget the name) is far better.
"If it's done safely, therapeutically, there's no danger involved."
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
I'm going to assume you meant by the comet crashing into a planet, and isn't it a creditable belief that some of the material responsible for life on earth was brought by comets? Perhaps a alien civilisation's equivalent of this probe was the basis for the entire of life on Earth? :)
On a slightly more serious note, all NASA space gear is assembled in a clean room, and they do almost everything they can to prevent microbes from contaminating equipment.
Is it? Why was it on the same line as the body of his post?
If it's his sig, he should either use the built in sig option under "Preferences" or at least put it a line down.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Modded as funny, but it could equally be insightful.
the nanotech civilization living on the comet wipes Earth off the Solar System...
With luck, they'll be more precise about it and just wipe out the US government.
Well, we can hope...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Has anyone played around with their little Java orbit simulator? It seems to me that in 2022 or so, the comet will come to a very near miss or possibly even impact with Mars. How reliable is this simulator in the long run, and how likely is it that something of that nature would occur and/or have any major effects?
First Arnold ends up with a possibility for being president (not likely I hope) and now this. Does Hollywood have a real-live psychic helping with storylines or is it the other way around and this culture is that influenced by movies? (note: terrible attempt at sarcasm)
I'm glad we're finally doing something about these damned comets.
Kill 'em all!
Mayday Mayday! this is slashball 1, we've been hit hit! with rasberry's!!
First, they must have taken a page from the particle physics book: smash things together and see what happens.
Second, we already know they're good at crashing things, so this shouldn't be a problem. In all seriousness, I look forward to it.
webpage
at band camp, we converted my flute into a rocket. We had a launch and it intercepted an asteroid. We steered the asteroid into a collision path with the earth. It was all very politically motivated of course. You see we wanted to bring in the new world order with a bang.
Seems like NASA's been having a lot of success lately. These are exciting times and im glad to be alive. Let's go to mars!
And Earth is the left side pocket...
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
NASA's Deep Impact, a spacecraft named after the 1998 movie why would anybody want to remember that movie let alone name something after it. The only reason it was made was because celestial objects destroying the planet was in that year. I mean remember that one fad where volcanoes destroying stuff was in. But i dont think NASA would be that connected into hollywood-movie-pop-fopa to name something after a movie because movies are so fake. I mean hell no one would name a fusion generator the octavious because a guy in spiderman2 created the most bullshit fusion reaction ever. Just my feeling.
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
that impact may well be deep, and lasting. ;)
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
You completely miss the point of NASAs existence.
Of course things cost more when NASA does it because the purpose of NASA is to take government money and spread it out to as many other companies as possible. Without this, companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and numerous other aerospace companies big and small would never exist (or be radically different).
This is a method to keep engineers, scientists, average joe workers, and the thousands of other workers that provide related services and materials to them employed. Doing something interesting with that money is completely secondary.
Some other countries choose to give direct subsidies to their high tech companies. Americans seem to frown or this so the government chooses to get NASA to do it indirectly.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
creative spelling. i didnt feel like looking it up so i winged it. i do the same on homework.
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
The NASA project was NOT named after the movie of the same name.
It was named after Armageddon.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
"Cant cure cancer. Cant cure AIDs either. Cant kill terrorists. But hell, lets blow up some comets!"
Yeah, it's pretty sad that Nasa's focus is on space travel instead of being a bunch of generalists.
"Derp de derp."
Wow, you actually figured it out? We, the yanks, have known exactly what the point of this was for years.
;-)
China is also seeking to militarize space. This would happen with or without the US being around. If the US or China wasn't there to do it, the old Soviet Union would have been happy to fill in the void. I am sure every one of the countries under the label of "axis of evil" would spring at the opportunity to also seek space weaponry if they had the resources. I would also bet a little dictator with death rays from space would have no problem obliterating your skinny, white european hyde. The US, on the other hand, would probably seek free trade agreements and offer humanitarian and military aid if you choose sides with them.
While I disagree with the premise of the current occupation, it is disturbing to see so many people whine about a nation which brought them the very technology they use to complain about it.
Hopefully, next time we won't spend hundreds of billions rebuilding europe, japan and company. Apparently, assisting them in their wars while being a constant source of aid doesn't give one any political tout anymore, so screw it.
Most of the ideas that I have heard for averting comets involve deflecting them, and not blowing them it.
Ewige Blumenkraft.
...but if the "Heaven's Gate" cult was right, we might be killing several aliens and the spirits of all the 39 dead humans who "warped" to the comet after committing suicide.
But what if these cures are in a comet?
Deep Impact, by contrast, will provide "instant gratification," says Grammier. The entire $330 million mission should be wrapped up a month after impact.
So, the Europeans are going to geeeently land their little rover (Beagle III?), putter around, and delicately inspect rocks and dust. Boooriiiinng! :-)
NASA, in typical American fashion...
KA-BLOOIEE! Blow it up! Blow it up! I'm so glad I'm an American. This is a country that combines science, space explosions, and patriotism into one very cool bundle. And we can take pictures of it from Mars.I. Love. This. Countryyy! Yeeeeeeaaah! *does Bush/Ballmer monkey dance*
Oh, it's called the Rosetta. Sorry. I even quoted that. Doh!
But the Beagle jab was said in jest anyway.
We already know what they'll find in the middle of the comet. Naquadah.
Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
Why, blow it up, of course!
Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)