Today, a copper fridge released by a space probe named Deep Impact ("the car") intentionally hit a comet named Tempel 1. This is pretty much the truth.
The complete space probe was lifted into earth orbit and released into space some 172 days ago with a speed of about 10.2 m/s (37,000 km/h or 20,000 miles/h). It took a big amount of propulsion energy to get it up to this speed.
The produced thrust was big enough to get the probe into space and let her leave earth gravity. However, it wouldn't have been big enough to directly escape from our solar system. For major deceleration or acceleration manoevers, Deep Impact would have needed the assistance of other planets of our solar system.
Alternatively one could have taken an additional rocket into space but that was no serious option. ("If it's difficult to take a car into orbit, how would one be able to take a big truck there..."). Any time consuming deceleration or acceleration manoevers were abolished for Deep Impact.
As a result, Deep Impact ("the car") was shot into space without brakes but with a copper fridge on his loading space.
Europe started a similar space probe named Rosetta in 2004 for going to a comet named Tschurjumow-Gerasimenko. This mission will complement the direct approach of Deep Impact. It is intended to perform a soft landing on the comet's surface in 2014. It has no own brakes either. However, it uses the other planets of our solar system to speed up to the same speed as the target comet (as a "free-rider"). Disadvantage with Rosetta: It takes a hell of a time.
I wonder if these two missions will bring any reasonable results for the human kind apart from being great PR successes ? Am I an ignoramus ?
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
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