NASA Prepares to Launch Comet-Buster

Chessphoon writes "NASA's Deep Impact, a spacecraft named after the 1998 movie, is scheduled to launch on January 12. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will collide with Comet Tempel 1 six months later on July 4, and create a crater so that the inside of the comet can be analyzed."

Re:Is it just me...

[fred911]

" I know that there is no danger"

That's because you don't live there. What if we're too stupid to recognize a type of life that does?

Re:What a waste of money

[drakethegreat]

I think you are thinking about it the wrong way. NASA doesn't like to spend more money to send crafts over 1000 times the distance or greater (where other comets might be) but rather would spend money on analyzing a comet right near by. It saves them money actually and because they have never seen the comet up close its possible that its something besides just a big rock. NASA is full of optimists who think that something amazing to learn could be anywhere in the cosmos so they will take the time to look at anything they can. Waste of time, I don't think so.

Re:The aliens have got a little list

[LiquidCoooled]

All my family have signed up for this, and as its launch grows nearer its getting exciting.
This may be the only way I can get into space, so jumped at the chance when offered last year.

Its also good for my son, who can show all his class the certificate hes got for signing up.

Re:What a waste of money

[the angry liberal]

How is that going to cost effective?

It will be, just not anytime soon. Don't get caught in the trap of always thinking what is here and now is all there is.

Spend a moment and think on the scale technology has driven forward in the past 200 years. We have gone from living in the dark at night, without climate control, to sending people to the moon and mechanical drones to Mars.

Quantum computing and nanotech are going to hit eventually. If not one of those, then it is likely someone will stumble on something completely missed by the entire mass of humanity and change the world again. Or, of course, we could just all die out due to a disaster at any given moment...