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Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:42 am**

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The big, grown-up boys on the NASA (news - web sites) 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 â?? 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.

"A sample return would be the ultimate, but this is one exciting mission because for the first time we're actually reaching out and we're going to create our own crater," says Donald Yeomans, a senior research scientist at JPL in California â?? and an adviser on the movie.

"We'll understand how the comet is put together, its density, its porosity, whether it has a surface crust and underlying ices, whether it's layered ice, whether it's a wimpy comet or whether it's a rock-hard ice ball. All of these things will become apparent after we smack it."

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I can't wait. With spectrography we will be able to 'taste' the contents of the comet and find out what it is really composed of.

Don't worry, this will not cause it to crash into the Earth, NASA promises!

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:31 am**

they are gonna take pictures all the way upto it

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 5:53 am**

Interesting.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:14 am**

Good. That comet always irked me anyways.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:48 am**

What a stupid poll... Scientists know very well what the effect is going to be, otherwise they wouldn't be planning this.

This said, I couldn't care less about what is going to be found out on the comet.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:01 am**

What if it's gold?

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:49 pm**

Unix wrote:What if it's gold?

Actually, I'm hoping they find roast beef

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:52 pm**

C'mon guys ... it's GREEN CHEESE ... GREEN CHEESE!!

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 1:57 pm**

nice find Roid. ive been wondering what they were planning and when it was going to happen

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:58 pm**

Lobber posted this thread Ace. Nice to know how well people read even the smallest threads

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:35 pm**

I noticed that the actual size of the comet in question is not mentioned.

Did I just miss it somewhere?

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:42 pm**

9 miles in length

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:03 pm**

9 miles of roast beef, needs a lot of gravy

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:37 pm**

roid wrote:9 miles of roast beef, needs a lot of gravy

Don't forget roast potatoes, peas and a yorkshire pudding

You probably don't know what one of those is. Probably because you only find it on comets.

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:41 pm**

Tyranny wrote:Lobber posted this thread Ace. Nice to know how well people read even the smallest threads

my bad, sorry Lobber...... NICE FIND!!

Posted: **Sun Jan 02, 2005 11:45 pm**

Knowing NASA, it'll probably miss entirely due to another feet/meters debacle.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:00 am**

np ace.

I too wonder if NASA can hit a comet, but they say the chance for missing is less than 1%... which is a very good chance of hitting. They seem pretty sure of themselves.

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:35 am**

Tricord wrote:This said, I couldn't care less about what is going to be found out on the comet.

Why not? This could lead to more information about the formation of our solar system; plus, what's cooler than blowing a hole in a comet?

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:56 am**

Seriously what is a yorkshire pudding? Being a "yank" I don't know, and I've read it in Harry Potter books not knowing what it was. Also, "steak and kidney pie."

I've come to understand that treacle tart is some sort of like marmalade pie kinda thing, right?

You crazy Euros and your crazy names!

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:34 am**

im not sure what a yorkie poodin' is, i know its made mostly from egg white.. but damn man, they fookin pown... mm poodink...

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:41 am**

Beowulf wrote:Seriously what is a yorkshire pudding? Being a "yank" I don't know, and I've read it in Harry Potter books not knowing what it was. Also, "steak and kidney pie."

I've come to understand that treacle tart is some sort of like marmalade pie kinda thing, right?

You crazy Euros and your crazy names!

Yorkshire Pudding is a bit like bread that you put gravy and butter on. At least thats the way I have had it.

RC

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 11:04 am**

A yorkshire pudding is simply a little bun-like thing that you can put gravy, potato, peas or meat inside..

See below?

A steak and kidney pie is basically a pie with meat, vegetables and gravy inside.

Sorry Lobber

I think we should get back on topic now...

Posted: **Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:02 pm**

I just want to know one thing, why does a discussion about a comet, a stellar object, having nothing to do with the culinary arts.... result in talking about yorksire pudding? Douglas Adams anyone?

Posted: **Tue Jan 04, 2005 1:10 am**

if the comet was roatbeef and frozen gravy. the dust surrounding it would HAVE to be yorkshire puddings, perhaps interspaced with a mist of vapourized gravy from the comet itself. getting thinner as it nears the sun.

i wonder if the probe's impact will be able to penetrate the gravy crust to expose the beef core. we can only wait to see.

Posted: **Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:18 am**

Yorkshire pudding? roast beef? frozen gravy?

Some of that comet IS GOING to land in my backyard.

Though I wouldn't mind if it all just turned out to be a big bunch of mint chocolate chip ice cream...

Posted: **Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:02 pm**

(In Homer Simpson voice): "Mmmm... mint chocolate-chip..."

Seriously though, take a look at this paragraph from the article:

Another practical benefit of the mission: By knowing what's inside comets, NASA would be better able to use them in the future as watering holes and fueling stations. Robots or astronauts, for instance, could break the comet's water down into its basic elements, hydrogen and oxygen, the ingredients for rocket fuel.

Maybe I'm not looking at this correctly, but doesn't this idea of using a comet as a re-fueling station seem a little far-fetched, especially when you consider the energy requirements for breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen?

Posted: **Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:30 pm**

Ah, finally back on topic...

Not necessarily. If you consider that the power to convert could come directly from the Sun itself, in the form of giant solar panels.

Posted: **Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:56 pm**

hey with solar panels it,ll be self cooking, anyone got the horse radish sauce ?

Posted: **Tue Jan 04, 2005 6:31 pm**

yeah that's what i'm thinking, when you are talking about the huge distances involved in space: making energy is trivial (solar panels or fusion come to mind) compared to the work and travel involved in gathering raw materials.
horse raddish sauce doesn't grow on every gas giant out there. but once you have it, powering your microwave to HEAT that sauce is easy.

are we even spelling sauce correctly?
(ah yeah we are)

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NASA going to blow up a comet next July 4th

NASA going to blow up a comet next July 4th