http://www1.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/ http://www.ballaerospace.com/deepimpact.html Deep Impact was successfully launched at 1:47:08 p.m. EST January 12, 2005 and is now on its way to a July 2005 rendezvous with Comet Tempel 1. Deep Impact will explore the deep regions of the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 before, during, and after impacts, and return the observations to Earth. Does anybody know if we'll be able to see it for here? or with a telescope?
Are they going to re-release it with Morgan Freeman as Colin Powell??? Darn it, I hate it when someone beats me to it.
Stay on target... BOOM. _______ NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft on Target for Comet Crash With a little more than two days left in its six-month journey, managers for NASA's Deep Impact mission said the spacecraft is on course to make its historic encounter with a comet late Sunday evening. "I'm pleased to report that both the Flyby and the Impactor spacecraft are ready for encounter operations," Dave Spencer, Deep Impact's mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), announced today at a mission briefing. link
Final image before impact... 'Barney and friends' special episode on comets was interrupted during impact - condition of cast and crew unknown. Movie of comet and impact
Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet Mission Jul 5, 1:53 PM (ET) (AP) In this photo released by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/University of Maryland, the Tempel 1 comet... Full Image MOSCOW (AP) - NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust - it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer. Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "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. Scientists say the crash did not significantly alter the comet's orbit around the sun and said the experiment does not pose any danger to Earth. The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists hope to examine to learn how the solar system was formed. 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." NASA representatives in Russia could not be reached for comment on the case. LINK
If we can hit a comet, then why is it, we cannot hit a nuclear warhead? By the way, they say hitting a comet and steering off path is much more difficult than a asteroid... the reason being that when you explode something on or near a comet it acts like a sponge because of the composition (ice and what not). Therefore it is almost impossible to move them off path even if we could deliver a serious blow.
