Suicide mission NASA to put this craft on collision course with comet

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/thisday/opinion.20050102-sbt-MICH-B6-Suicide.sto

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The big, grown-up boys on the NASA team can hardly wait. Next Fourth of July, they get to bust up a comet, Hollywood-style.

"Blow things up? I'm there. Yeah, I don't have any issue with that," says Richard Grammier, manager of the project for Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (And, oh yeah, he used to work with explosives in the military.)

The spacecraft is called Deep Impact just like the 1998 movie about a comet headed straight for Earth. NASA's goal is to blast a crater into Comet Tempel 1 and analyze the ice, dust and other primordial stuff hurled out of the pit.

Mission planners say the energy produced will be like 4.5 tons of TNT going off -- producing a fireworks display for the world's observatories.

Scientists know little about comets and even less about their nuclei, or cores. They believe that penetrating the interior for observations by space and ground telescopes is the next best thing to actually landing, scooping up samples and delivering them to Earth.
<snip>

Do I need a tin foil hat when this story comes out so closely to the asteroid near miss story? :silly:

[latteromden]

1. "The spacecraft is called Deep Impact..." *bangs head against wall* WHY?

[theycanbiteme]

4. Oh...but its not meant to "mean" anything....

:eyes:

[wolfgirl]

2. Hmmm..

now I understand why the head of NASA retired/resigned. The military has taken over and this little adventure is a test of some type of new weapon....

(tinfoil hat now removed)

[Igel]

3. It beats passive observation.

You can't tell what's inside a comet, and theories abound as to how they're put together.

Sounds like there's no explosives involved, tho'. Just a very large release of kinetic energy. I guess explosives would be bad--they'd contaminate the environment they're studying more than necessary.

[Trillo]

5. Is this comet on a collision course with earth? If not, is it a good idea

to potentially alter the comet's orbit? If its orbit is changed, what guarantees does NASA offer that the new orbital path of either the comet or blast debris will not be deleterious?

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Moderator]

7. locking

This topic was discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1098179#1100544

a week ago.

Feel free to repost in GD or science forums.

[maddezmom]

8. unlocking

sorry about the confusion.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. Thanks!

I can see the initial confusion, and that's part of what made the story intriguing to me.

[daleo]

10. Wow, some metal is going to commit suicide.

We should give it a medal.

[Massachusetts]

11. Starring....Bruce (whats his name?),

The Rock Singers' daughter (whats her face?), The other guy (not Damon), Maverick, and a cast of odd characters.

A billion here and a billion there, here a billion there a billion...Old McBushie had a farm, eiii, eiiii, oooooooooooo.

What a country, what hero's.:wtf:

[Pam-Moby]

12. Curiosity killed the cat

Probably they will cause the comet to go on a collision course toward the earth by having to know what makes up a comet. Someone must be bored!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. I think it is a nuke

and this is a dress-rehearsal for a closer comet