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Japanese Spacecraft Bringing Back Space Rock
phaic tan writes "Bridie Smith from the Sydney Morning Herald reports on the Hayabusa spacecraft returning to earth in June with samples from the Itokawa Asteroid: 'A Japanese spacecraft will land in Australia in June, bringing with it samples from an asteroid found 300 million kilometres from Earth. The unmanned Hayabusa spacecraft, launched in May 2003, will become the first spacecraft to bring asteroid material to Earth when it lands in Woomera, South Australia, later this year.'"
...rocks !
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Picked another big island at least.. you know, in case the blob needs to be isolated. Al though I'd think if they landed in Japan at least Godzilla could melt it if it got too large. Oh well.
with the destruction of Tokyo by a giant lizard or mecha.
Do they have a 'Wildfire' installation in Australia to study any space microbes that might be on the rock?
First Brian May, now Meatloaf?
Is astrophysics mandatory for classic rock legends? What's next? Will Robert Plant drop his Aleister Crowley obsession in favor of studying the Pioneer anomaly?
What if the asteroid contains a dangerous life form? Don't these people watch any sci-fi movies?
The quote doesn't say anything about calamity.
If you read between the lines you'd also realize we are on collision course with an asteroid fragment thanks to this mission, it will hit Woomera, South Australia, later this year if nothing is done to prevent it. I suggest we hit it with all our nukes after touchdown, that saves us the trouble of hitting a moving target.
Don't they also hold the record of most different horrible ways to die by nature?
Tenacity is right. Space probe engineers are the sort of individuals who could coax a car into starting with no gasoline. Or engine.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?