Spacecraft to blast off on mission to comet

[underpants]

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3463991,00.html

A Boulder-built NASA spacecraft is set to blast off this morning on a six-month trip to blow a crater the size of Invesco Field at Mile High in a comet.

When the $330 million Deep Impact spacecraft collides with Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, it will uncover primordial ices unchanged since the solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago. By analyzing the composition of those ices, scientists hope to refine theories about the birth and evolution of our planetary system.


Deep Impact will collide with Tempel 1 - a hunk of ice and rock about 5 miles long and nearly 2 miles wide - at nearly 23,000 mph. The impactor will be vaporized on contact, ejecting a cloud of ice, dust and gas that could brighten the comet's appearance from Earth. The collision is expected to create a crater up to 300 feet across and 100 feet deep.

Cameras on the mother ship will relay pictures to Earth, which will be 83 million miles from the comet July 4.

[farmbo]

1. And...Oh Yeah...It will also SAVE THE EARTH from certain destruction!

...unless its mission fails, in which case...We'LL ALL BE KILLED!!!

[BrainRants]

2. Can we put Bruce Willis on it for real? n/t

[malachi]

3. $330 million. What an obscene waste of money. Boys and girls

playing with very expensive tinker toys. Almost as much as the US commitment to tsunami aid. Please spare me the bullshit scientific research argument. It doesn't wash. I can think of 330 million better ways to spend that kind of money.