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."

Comments

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

[whatme]

I think examples of this are what we should petition congress to INCREASE funding for NASA. The simple fact is NASA has developed a culture to maximize their return on projects (and succeeding). Give them some more funds to accomplish the additional programs they have backlogged. If they can continue this culture, we all benefit.

Too bad the rest of the government can't follow this lead.

Conserve our angular momentum

[isaac]

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