Cometary Fireworks Go Off Without Hitch

Posted by Zonk on Monday July 4, 2005 @12:01AM from the waaay-better-than-the-movie dept.

PingXao writes "The JPL Deep Impact mission has successfully slammed a sattelite into Tempel 1 at 23,000 mph. (37,000 kph). The autonomous navigation system was primed for up to 3 course corrections in the final 2 hours of flight but only had to execute two of them. The second was so small - expending less than a pound of propellant - that impact would have occurred without it. Initially thought to be shaped like a pickle, it came to resemble more of a banana shape as comet Tempel I drew closer. Impact was estimated to have released 19 Gigajoules of energy, or the equivalent of 4.5 tons of TNT."

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Re:Next Time by Shamon · 2005-07-04 05:19 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Aww, how cute, someone's playing space scientist today! Soon after typing the above recommendations, Bobby went upstairs, because Mom cooked Mac and Cheese.
NASA and the scientific community are forever in your debt, Bobby!
Re:Experiment result by Flamingcheeze · 2005-07-04 08:01 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Nasa just released the results of their collision experiment:

Tempel: 1
Impactor: 0

US Taxpayers: -$300,000,000

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