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Underground > Laboratory >

4th July U.S. cometbuster

12:16 / 02.07.05

from www.theglobeandmail.com Saturday, July 2, 2005;

"American scientists are planning a July 4 fireworks display that is literally out of this world.
Very early on Monday morning, between Mars and Jupiter, a U.S. space probe will crash into a speeding comet, sending up a massive spray of debris that should be visible (through telescopes) on Earth.
The goal of the mission, named "Deep Impact," as was a 1998 movie about a comet threatening life on Earth, is to learn more about the inner composition of comets, which may contain pristine elements left over from the formation of the solar system more than 4.6 billion years ago. In fact, the kamikaze probe could shed light on the origins of life itself."

I love the timing. Maybe in years to come they will nuke Phobos, or implode Venus or something. I wonder if there's a case for conservation of interplanetary bodies?

All Acting Regiment

17:09 / 02.07.05

Well, I read that they only intend to do this to one comet, and even then not to blow it up entirely, just crack part of it off. And while this comet is the size of New York, that's small fry on a galactic scale.

But still. Yes, this does seem ridiculously jingoistic. Wasn't it said that Bush was only going to keep funding NASA if they did "exciting things"? Is this the "dumbing down" of the space era?

23:08 / 03.07.05

That's not good television at all and you're being knobs.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

03:13 / 04.07.05

Just under an hour and three-quarters to go...

...but I'll warn you, I've seen Night Of The Living Dead, and I'm fearful as to where this will lead...

All Acting Regiment

11:05 / 04.07.05

How does Night Of The Living Dead relate to comets? Seriously, I haven't seen it. If it doesn't have anything to do with this topic, isn't your post rotting this thread?

12:04 / 04.07.05

Have you seen Night of the Comet, Stoat? Classic.

12:58 / 04.07.05

THis probably is threadrot but Nigh of the Living Dead includes mentions of a returning space probe as a hint at the source for the sudden outbrake of zombies - it is a motif that is returned to in Shaun of the Dead...

Back onto the topic, and it all seems to have gone rather well. the goal was relatively simple - through a washing machine-sized probe at a come to see what breaks off and record the effects with another probe... it may well confirm what scientists have suspected since the mid-80s, that comets are basically big dirty snowballs.

14:08 / 04.07.05

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050704/full/050704-2.html

'In a triumph of cosmic marksmanship, a NASA probe has smashed into Tempel 1...'
"A large amount of material has been ejected; far more than people anticipated," says Paul Roche, an astronomer from University of Wales

This is how zombie armageddon starts! To reference Jurassic Park, 'First the oohing and the aahing, then the running and the screaming..'

11:20 / 05.07.05

You know, there was an actual reason for doing this. it wasn't just a matter of blowing a chunk out of passing planetary bodies for sh^ts and giggles. Or some American urge to blow stuff up.

The intention was to analyse the geyser of vapourised material caused by the impact so we can find out more about comets, and what they're made of. It's not like taking a wee chunk out of one of the thousands bobbing around the solar system is some kind of cosmic vandalism.

I'm sure the timing with Independance Day wasn't coincidental. But the Yanks do like to do things in that kind of cheesily symbolic way don't they.

11:21 / 05.07.05

I changed my mind, zombies are hammering at my lab's doors. Blowing up space-rocks is bad.

Now, where's my shotgun?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:46 / 05.07.05

I don't have a website but apparently a Russian astromer wants to sue NASA because DI hitting the comet has thrown off all her charts.

16:40 / 05.07.05

I'm sure the timing with Independance Day wasn't coincidental. But the Yanks do like to do things in that kind of cheesily symbolic way don't they.

I'm sure it was coincidental. We only do stuff like that if it looks good on television. If we could put John McCain and Elizabeth Hurley in front of that exploding comet with a "Mission Accomplished" banner, maybe. Otherwise, you're talking about, what? Some smudgy crap on a NASA screen? Boring. The date was probably chosen by the comet, not by us.

19:49 / 05.07.05

The smudgy crap was irrelevant - we got to see the digital images of what it would look like if we were there, and all the cheering high-fives at Control, and they kept saying "cosmic fireworks" over and over and over...

I think the lawsuit bearing Russian is an astrologer.

22:31 / 05.07.05

Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the Comet Tempel 1 this week “ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe,” the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said.

Bai is seeking damages totaling $300 million — the approximate equivalent of the mission’s cost — for her “moral sufferings,” Izvestia said, citing her lawyer Alexander Molokhov. She earlier told the paper that the experiment would “deform her horoscope.” See more at MSNBC

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:12 / 06.07.05

So has anyone watched the footage (I'm currently off work so only have dial-up, but I'm intrigued). Just smudgy crap, or can you tell what's going on?

The way I understood it, when they first announced this, was that they had a window of 2 or 3 days, ao they chose the 4th July, seeing as how it was on offer.

10:02 / 06.07.05

So the date is coincidence rather than propoganda? I find that unlikely.

"To conclude, I would like to note that next week our nation will celebrate our Independence Day, a day of fireworks and celebration. That same day, NASA satellite operators working on the Deep Impact mission will be hard at work trying to create their own fireworks display, 80 million miles from Earth, by smashing a small spacecraft into the comet Temple 1 at 23,000 miles per hour to discover what's inside. It's a difficult mission... even for rocket scientists.

The men and women of NASA appreciate the risks our nation is willing to make for the noble purpose of exploration and science. Meriwether Lewis observed in his journal two hundred years ago on July 4th, 1805: "We all believe that we are now about to enter on the most perilous and difficult part of our voyage, yet I see no one repining; all appear ready to meet those difficulties which wait us with resolution and becoming fortitude."

Statement of Michael D. Griffin
NASA Administrator
Review of President's FY2006 Budget
House Science Committee
June 28, 2005

Space jingoism anyone? Personally I don't care, anything to improve space funding, but don't think it's accidental- they're sexing up space exploration.

11:01 / 06.07.05

Jesus Christ. A bunch of nerdy NASA guys have a 2 day window to smash the comet, and they think it's kind of neat to do it on a national holiday where fireworks are widely used. Doesn't make them evil cunts does it?

Professor Silly

15:18 / 13.07.05

The date had more to do with proximity of orbits than holidays.

The comet was struck on July forth for the Eastern and Central time zones, but it hit on the third for us in the Rockies and the Western time zone. So at the most we're only half insanely patriotic.

10:52 / 14.07.05

Whoa there Jack, not painting NASA as evil, just saying it's very American.

11:15 / 17.07.05

Boolsheet.