NASA Setting Off On Collision Course With Comet...

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94RedSiGal

Senior Member
Neato! I hope this project works out. :thumbsup:

NASA Setting Off On Collision Course With Comet, For First Time Ever

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- For the first time ever, NASA is setting off on a collision course with a comet, in hopes of blasting a huge hole in the celestial snowball and gazing upon the original ingredients of the solar system preserved inside.

It all begins with a planned Wednesday launch of Deep Impact, a copper-fortified, comet-busting spacecraft.

NASA has a single second -- at precisely eight seconds past 1:47 p.m. -- to send Deep Impact on a 268 million-mile, six-month voyage to Comet Tempel 1. Good weather is forecast, cheering scientists who are up against a firm two-week deadline for launching the probe.

Scientists have no idea what Comet Tempel 1 looks like. They don't know whether the spacecraft will have to punch through a crust as hard as a concrete sidewalk or as flimsy as corn flakes.

All they know with certainty is that the nucleus, or core, of the comet is three times as long as it is wide, and that they must crash into the sunlit side to capture pictures of the resulting crater and all the ice, dust and other primordial matter shooting out of the hole July 4.

Uncertainty over the comet's shape "has caused us some concern about, can we hit the comet," said Jay Melosh, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona. Officially, NASA puts the odds of a bull's-eye at better than 99 percent.

"We hope we'll make a crater ... perhaps 300 feet in diameter, 100 feet deep, that we'll get through that crust and reveal the interior of the comet," Melosh said Tuesday. "But we don't know what comets are made of. We don't know how strong they are."

This $330 million mission should provide those answers, along with clues to the origin of the solar system 41/2 billion years ago.

Because of the relative speed at the moment of impact -- 23,000 mph -- no explosives are needed for the job. The force of the smashup will be the equivalent of 41/2 tons of TNT going off.

"The amount of energy of the spacecraft is about 10 times larger than an equivalent mass of TNT hitting the comet so we could pack it with explosives, it wouldn't make much of a difference," Melosh said. "Just by colliding with it, we're going to blast a big hole."

Deep Impact actually consists of two spacecraft, the SUV-sized mothership and the TV-sized impactor that will spring free one day before the Fourth of July strike. The mothership is equipped with the largest telescope ever destined for deep space, to record the impact from a safe 300 miles away. Ground observatories also will record the event, as well as amateur astronomers.

Both craft are shielded to protect against all the dust coming off the comet. Once on its own, the impactor will have to maneuver through this cloud of fine but potentially damaging particles to get out ahead of the comet and be run over by it.

Those last 24 hours will be the most perilous part of the journey.

"The last 20 minutes is when I'm going to really bite my fingernails," Melosh said.

"I'd even go with the last one minute," said the University of Maryland's Michael A'Hearn, the principal scientist.

The impactor will vaporize instantly when it hits, as will its small payload, a compact disc containing more than 500,000 names of people who wanted to vicariously tag along. (AP)
 
So they're gonna smash a multimillion dollar rocket into a comet, just to see what the shit looks like? I can tell you what it looks like...like a fuckin' rock! Geez....
 
Originally posted by civicious@Jan 12 2005, 11:30 AM
So they're gonna smash a multimillion dollar rocket into a comet, just to see what the shit looks like? I can tell you what it looks like...like a fuckin' rock! Geez....
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Comets are ice not rock.... :p
 
ya well this will be a huge leap if it works. or will bush decide god dosn't want us to know and stop it
 
Well if NASA can land a probe on this comet, then it leads the way for future interactions with asteroids that might be on a path to hit Earth. We could then either alter their paths or destroy them just like in the movies.
 
Originally posted by civicious@Jan 12 2005, 02:30 PM
So they're gonna smash a multimillion dollar rocket into a comet, just to see what the shit looks like? I can tell you what it looks like...like a fuckin' rock! Geez....
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No. The multimillion dollar part will be far away observing what happens when another craft slams into the comet. I don't think that part is anything more than a huge chunk of shaped metal with some instruments on it. Since the craft's impact will have the force of 40 some tons of TNT, explosives are not needed.

Why are they doing this? Comets are leftover material from the creation of the solar system. Finding out what one consists of will answer many questions about the origin of our solar system and possibly life on Earth.

Nice that this will happen on the 4th. Gonna watch the fireworks from the middle of nowhere where there are no lights for miles.
 
this just in...

NASA has decided they are better at blowing things up and embarks on mission to rid the galaxy of troublesome comets
 
Originally posted by Sabz5150@Jan 12 2005, 09:03 PM
Why are they doing this? Comets are leftover material from the creation of the solar system. Finding out what one consists of will answer many questions about the origin of our solar system and possibly life on Earth.
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IMO, they will only answer questions they already know the answers to. the big bang theory is pretty much the most widely accepted theory and that planets and everything else formed from massive gas clouds that cam together from gravity. and everything else like comets and shit was just left over. its cool in a way, but i feel it will just prove their theory. but it doesnt matter, i doubt it will work anyway.
 
Originally posted by GSRCRXsi@Jan 12 2005, 11:45 PM
IMO, they will only answer questions they already know the answers to. the big bang theory is pretty much the most widely accepted theory and that planets and everything else formed from massive gas clouds that cam together from gravity. and everything else like comets and shit was just left over. its cool in a way, but i feel it will just prove their theory. but it doesnt matter, i doubt it will work anyway.
[post=444931]Quoted post[/post]​


We have very little info as to what the original building blocks of the solar system are. Comets and Kupier belt objects are the only things left over from that time. So either blow up a comet or take a trip to the Kupier belt.

Either way, it's gonna be a badass kaboom.
 
Originally posted by DarkHand@Jan 12 2005, 01:55 PM
Just wait till the thing sends the comet on a collision course with Earth!! :eek: :D
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well there really is a comet on its way to earth...its supposed to hit here 2024 or 28....they are trying to keep it really hush hush because people are paraniod as shyt and that it will probally miss, but close enough for debry(sp) to hit earth

with NASA luck that craft will either

a. hit the comet but go right throught it

b. hit the Middle East and say "Opps, what went wrong, and we didnt know there was a Nuc on board..or

c. it miracally hits the core of the comet, but the cameras and other sensors dont work
 
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