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Deep Impact Mission May Be Extended
SeaDour writes "The famous Deep Impact mission, which in 2005 launched a projectile in the path of comet Tempel 1, may be extended by NASA. The proposal is to slingshot the probe around the Earth as it passes by at the end of this year, putting it on a trajectory to reach comet Boethin in December 2008. Scientists want to see if the strange composition and behavior of Tempel 1 is more common than they had previously assumed. (The probe only had one projectile though, so we will not see another brilliant man-made explosion on this comet.) Additionally, while the probe is en route to the comet, researchers will point its on-board telescope at known exosolar planets to determine the compositions of their atmospheres."
An asteroid is headed for us and what little money NASA has they are spending it on blowing up rocks. I'm glad you people are so calm about this plainly spelled out emergency. Fact is, NASA can't do anything against a 2 mile long rock. They should invest all that money in bomb shelters for the general population- and stop pretending to be anything more than scientific children.
Your hubris are going to cost us lives. But they'll be dead, so nothing to worry about really- huh.
Just think about it for a second...
But it's out of projectiles, and won't blow up anything, so this time, many Boethins WON'T die to give us this information.
/me ducks. ;-p
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Now is the time for all good Americans to stand up and say "NO!" to the political hacks at NASA (appointed by the criminal Bush regime) who want to steal Earth's precious angular momentum. And for what? A so-called scientific mission costing millions of dollars? There are millions of starving children on Earth, and they can't eat spectroscopic data!
Using a gravitational slingshot around the Earth to accelerate this craft puts every human being on Earth at risk of falling space junk! And slowing Earth's orbit around the sun will lengthen our year - and you know what that means. Yep, more global warming, as more sunshine will reach Earth every year after this spacecraft passes.
No! We must speak up and not allow this mission to proceed! Not in our name!
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
They should have put a bitchin' bad multi-barrel probe launcher on that thing. Or maybe a machine-gun belt full of them.
See, this is why NASA should hire gamers to design their space probes.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
Maybe they could hit Halley's comet in 1986.
If they do try they've failed already. We just don't know how they screwed it up yet.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous