NASA Probe Hits Comet Target

A space probe hit its comet target late Sunday in a NASA-directed, Hollywood-style mission that scientists hope will reveal clues to how the solar system formed.

It marked the first time a spacecraft touched the surface of a comet, igniting a dazzling Independence Day weekend fireworks display in space.

The successful strike 83 million miles away from Earth occurred just before 11 p.m. PDT, according to mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which is managing the $333 million mission.

Scientists at mission control erupted in applause and gave each other hugs as news of the impact spread.

It was a milestone for the U.S. space agency, which hopes the $333 million experiment will answer basic questions about the origins of the solar system.

Source

An amazing feat. I wonder what they will learn from this. It took photos up until 3 seconds to impact right?

Should be neat.

Wow $333 million spent to crash a probe into a comet, sounds like a waste of money to me. I could have told them what would happen for about $3.50.

Originally posted by NinjaCodeMonkey
Wow $333 million spent to crash a probe into a comet, sounds like a waste of money to me. I could have told them what would happen for about $3.50.

You should send them your resume this minute ! No don't waste another second !

Seriously, hitting a moving target at 83 million miles is pretty damn cool.


Obviously they are interested, as in the article I posted, about how the solar system formed. Something that $3.50 of research probably wont get you.

[edit on 4-7-2005 by Dulcimer]

Here's the audio of the conformation.
s26.yousendit.com...

I've just finished watching the post-impact briefing (watched the impact earlier). I am into these events and I found it all very exciting. Not only for actually achieving it - I mean, what's it like? Hitting a moving bullet a mile away? - but the images that came back look pretty exciting. The last one taken by the impactor was only 50m away (actually I heard that and that it was 3 seconds - which doesn't seem to gel as I would have thought it was going faster than that would imply. I might have misheard one or other of those figures.)

Pretty cool stuff, I reckon. Hopefully they get some interesting info from it.

I thought the guy said it was going 9 times the speed of a bullet.

Yeah, 50 metres in the last 3 seconds just doesn't seem reasonable for the speeds it must have been travelling at. I am pretty sure of the 3 seconds, so must have misheard the bit about 50 metres away, or it refered to something else.


Actually tried doing the math:
50m in 3 secs
17m/sec approx
A Bullet (very roughly) is about 1000m per second.

So yeah, I must have got that wrong somewhere.

[edit on 4-7-2005 by whita]