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Deep Impact Comet-Smashing Video

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the mmm-delicious-space-porn dept.

DynaSoar writes "Dan Maas is the animation expert who produced NASA's Mars Rover animation which was subsequently used in the PBS Nova episodes 'Mars, Dead or Alive' and 'Welcome to Mars,' the majority of which was done while he was a Cornell student on a summer internship at NASA. His most recent release is NASA's best 'artist's conception' of the Tempel 1 Deep Impact mission. Nobody knows what will happen when 820 pounds of metal slams into the comet with 5 kilotons of force, but whatever happens, Maas's digital precreation is probably way more entertaining than NASA's imagery is likely to be. Two versions of the Deep Impact QuickTime video are available. A couple notes of interest: the original Mars video was produced as a music video, using Lenny Kravitz and Holst as soundtracks. This is available only to K-12 educators. Also, in the interview in the first link, when asked for an inspirational quote, he quotes John Carmack."

27 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. We need more missions like this. by Musteval · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then NASA can make a TV show. It'd increase funding, at least. Heck, make a reality show. Send people to Venus and see how long it takes them to realize they're going to die.

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    Note to mods: I'm probably being sarcastic.
    1. Re:We need more missions like this. by Eric+Coleman · · Score: 4, Informative

      NASA already has a TV channel. You can watch rocket launches, which are cool, and watch people work in mission control, which is boring. Reality TV doesn't get much more real than the NASA TV channel.

  2. What would really suck by Transcendent · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is if running this damn thing into the comet puts it on a trajectory to hit Earth down the line...

    Talk about one of the biggest "oops" of all time...

    1. Re:What would really suck by ytm · · Score: 4, Informative
      From TFA:
      The kinetic energy that will be released by the collision is estimated to be the equivalent of nearly 5 tons of TNT. However, this will only change the comet's velocity by about 0.0001 millimeters per second (0.014 inches per hour). The collision will not appreciably modify the orbital path of Tempel 1, which poses no threat to Earth now or in the foreseeable future.
      You would need much heavier (or faster) probe to change comet's path significantly.
    2. Re:What would really suck by kfg · · Score: 2, Informative

      This would be roughly equivilent to trying to hit your house with a dead elephant by giving it a push with your hands. . .from thirty miles away.

      KFG

    3. Re:What would really suck by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually what few people know is that the impact is supposed to knock it off it's current trajectory to avoid a collision with earth. Obviously they don't want to announce the possible collision to the public as it would cause panic.

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    4. Re:What would really suck by starbird · · Score: 3, Informative

      Uh. Space is a near vaccum. What turbulence are you going to experience?

      F=MA is the driving force of the cosmos. This comet isn't going to make a u-turn towards earth because a 800lb projectile hits it.

      Why not look at the actual orbit of the comet, vs earths orbit and compute the DV required for the 2 orbits to intersect.

      Tempel-1 isn't even a NEA. The orbit doesn't even cross the orbit of the earth.

    5. Re:What would really suck by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Tempel-1 isn't even a NEA. The orbit doesn't even cross the orbit of the earth.

      However, the orbit does occasionally pass near Jupiter. This makes its orbit chaotic and unpredictable over the very long term.

      One day, its orbit may get significantly altered by one or more close encounters to planets. It might end up being ejected from the solar system, sent into the sun, put into an earth-intersecting orbit, or countless other possibilities. It's unlikely that it will stay in its current orbit indefinitely.

      This impact will most likely change the ultimate fate of the comet's orbit over millions of years. (As will countless other events that affect the comet, such as changes in the solar wind due to solar flares.) The infinitesimal chance that it will eventually hit the earth due to this satellite is probably exactly balanced out by the infinitesimal chance that it was already going to hit the earth and we've just saved our planet.

  3. haha by pHatidic · · Score: 3, Funny
    I clicked to watch the short version, and it just said "done." Well that sure was short.

    PS top floor of the NASA building was ranked as one of the top ten places to have sex in public on Cornell campus. Not that I'd know or anything.

  4. deep impact? by calvincopter · · Score: 2, Funny

    we're wasting our taxpayers money on a comet that's not even going to hit on Earth? I find that incredibly silly.

    Why else would we fund billions of dollars to build a spaceship designed to hit a comet that's not going to hit us?

    1. Re:deep impact? by PoitNarf · · Score: 3, Informative

      Obviously you haven't read anything about this mission at all. The goal of this mission is to blast debris out from inside of the comet so that we can understand what it is actually composed of. Notice how the spacecraft launches a projectile at the comet, and then slows down to stay out of the way so that it can scan the particles that spew out of the crater?

      Anyway, I'm pretty sure we don't have the means currently to deflect a large comet or asteroid like they did in Armageddon or something like that. Perhaps the impact data from this experiment will help us in a similar situation as in the movies sometime in the future.

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      "0101100101? It's just jibberish. *looks in mirror, gasps* 1010011010@!? AHHHHHH!!"
  5. Coral Links Just in case by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Site was sluggish and can't remember if we've ever slashdotted NASA before :)

    Long
    Short

    and what the hell Torrent Too

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    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  6. A make believe space by sittingnut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We are now so used to manipulated or visualized eye candy of space and planets, that when the real images etc. are released (as with Titan) its very anticlimactic and boring.

    1. Re:A make believe space by IxianMach · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your kidding right ?

      http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image -details.cfm?imageID=1544

      You know this is a picture of Titan ?....A moon of Saturn, taken by a spacecraft we have sent there ?

      Let it sink in.

    2. Re:A make believe space by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Do what I do: hum the first few bars of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" from 2001: A SPace Odyssey whenever you look at the pictures.

  7. I'm just glad by DanielMarkham · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm just glad that NASA is finally blowing something up. Enough of these silly robots and picutres, send in some TNT! (I think they call this "active science")

    Blowing things up is always more interesting to the public than plain science missions. Perhaps next we can send some of those old ICMS to the moon. That would be a good show.

    Seriously, NASA has been politicized so much over its entire history. Perhaps publicity impact should be a key factor in planning missions. It certainly couldn't hurt, and it could lead to a lot more funding for them

  8. 5 kilotons of force? by laurens · · Score: 2, Informative
    Nobody knows what will happen when 820 pounds of metal slams into the comet with 5 kilotons of force

    ...Largely due to the fact that nobody knows what the hell the phrase "5 kilotons of force" means in an impact situation, even if we forgive the use of tons as a force unit.

    Or are we talking about an amount of energy equivalent to that released by 5 kilotons of TNT (probable)? Then say so. This is bad science, people. The kind that gets Ariane rockets blown up.

  9. 5 tons by Karamchand · · Score: 3, Informative

    It would be really cool if at least the submitters of new stories read their linked articles; the page clearly states that there won't be 5 kilotons, but the equivalent of 5 tons of TNT.

  10. May I be the first to say by varmittang · · Score: 4, Funny

    We hope the mission is a Smashing success.

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  11. NASA TV by jspoon · · Score: 3, Funny

    What they need is to put up a mission with an ordinary guy on board, someone the people can relate to. Just send up plenty of carbon rods and they'll be perfectly safe.

    1. Re:NASA TV by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 3, Funny

      This is Big Brother.

      jspoon, you have been voted out of the Big Brother spaceship.
      You have 30 seconds to go to the airlock.

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      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:NASA TV by EvilMonkeySlayer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, inanimate carbon rods shall save the day!

      Quote:

      Tom: Uh, how'd you solve the door dilemma?
      Buzz: Homer Simpson was the real hero here. He jury-rigged the door closed using this.
      Man 1: Hey, what is that?
      Man 2: It's an inanimate carbon rod!
      Everyone: Yay!

    3. Re:NASA TV by The_Wilschon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You mean like Christa McAuliffe? She was the grade school teacher who was on board the Challenger in 1986.

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      wait... not that kind of sig.
  12. More Videos For The Interested. by szyzyg · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From the days when I was still an astronomer
    Impact video mostly fragments, looking kinda dated now. Of course I must include my essential link to the most complete map of the inner solar system.


    And I recently re-did some density visualizations, a lot. more abstract, but cool in a trippy visuals kinda way.


    And finally - the most relevant - is an old movie I made to visualize a comet diverting mission, it's about 10 minutes and if shows a spacecraft flying through space with a nuke intended to give a nidge to an incoming comet. It's not great resolution, but I can't find the high definition versions that were used in a couple of TV shows. There are some ultra high definition stills in a book by Duncan Steel.

  13. Re:Hmm... by LurkerXXX · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Because they don't want to blow it into pieces. They just want to blow a hole in part of it to see what it's made of and how solidly it is held togeather. A 5 ton charge is plenty for that.

    If they were to send up a vehicle capable of hitting it with 5 megatons, that would either require launching a vehicle of~ 1,000,000 times greather mass (and launching heavy stuff into space is expensive enough, let alone increasig the mass 1 million x), or you would have to send a nuclear bomb rather than a kenetic/chemical charge. I think there are a lot of people on the planet who would be objecting if you wanted to launch a nuclear warhead just for kicks. What if it failed during launch and fell back to earth somewhere, especially somewhere populated.

  14. Re:We need more missions like this. - Yea, right. by Inspector+Lopez · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I thought the animations of the Mars Rover landings were quite satisfactory, and were a genuine aid in conveying the critical and unusual sequence of events (unusual because of the beach ball landing scheme.). Of course, I wasn't expecting to be entertained by these videos; I was expecting to be educated. Entertainment is Lucas' job, and education is (part of) NASA's.

    Consider the adjacent Slashdot article about Lucas's new studio,
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/26/133217 &tid=186&tid=101, which is nicely and expensively appointed to generate additional cinematic circuses. I'm sure that Lucas et al. could provide a splendid animation of the comet impact. But:
    1. Would you pay $10 to see it once?
    2. Do you expect NASA to produce it for "free"?
    3. Do you expect NASA to subcontract the video to a "real" CG house?
    The box office from the Star Wars movies, and related paraphernalia licensing, sufficed to pay for several Shuttle missions, or perhaps ten major satellite programs, or a century's worth of space science at NSF. It may be that these films have inspired a few people to go into science and engineering, But these films are, of course, pure fantasy in their depiction of space and space travel. I don't mean to diminish the splendid entertainment that Lucas offers, but I can't help the following comparison:
    The Star Wars movies are, to the perception of space travel, what pornography is to the perception of sex.


    Items 2 and 3 above will strongly impact NASA's budget; high quality CG added to a documentary structure could easily run in the mid seven figures for a single film. For a tenth that amount you can get Pretty Good results, and keep a hundred grad students in beer and chips for a year.

    Those hundred grad students will get you to Mars in twenty years. Or, you could help George Lucas buy a spare yacht today.
  15. Mars Rover IMAX by captaineo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hah pretty funny to wake up and see myself on the front page :).

    Three other artists and I are currently working on an IMAX film about the Mars Rover mission, to be released sometime next year. The image quality will be much better than my old NASA animation. We are re-creating the Rovers' actual environments on Mars using returned images and terrain data.