-Caveat Lector-
How often the "entertainment" media's "consciousness raising" --watch
the TIMING of new "concepts" in blockbuster films-- simply a lefthanded way
of priming the public for "FUND raising" -- for the latest silly pet projects
of the military-industrial complex?
NASA Unveils Plans for Comet
By MATTHEW FORDAHL
.c The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - NASA insists it's a coincidence.
Six years from now, a spacecraft named Deep Impact will fire a 1,100-pound
copper bullet at the nucleus of a comet, with the aim of blasting out a
crater the size of a football field and as deep as a seven-story building.
The $240 million mission approved Wednesday by NASA administrators may sound
more like fiction than science, but its primary purpose will be to study the
makeup of comets.
It just happens to have the same name as last summer's disaster movie ``Deep
Impact,'' which was about a comet smacking Earth.
``The name was selected prior to the movie,'' said James Graf, Deep Impact's
project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. ``It
wasn't inspired by it.
Deep Impact is scheduled to be launched in January 2004 and will arrive at
comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. The projectile will separate from the
spacecraft and hit the comet at 22,300 mph.
Shortly after impact, the craft will come within 300 miles of the comet
surface and send back data and pictures of the debris and crater. It will
eventually zoom off into space.
Comets are believed to be remnants from the early days of the solar system,
and several missions are planned to observe them close-up. Deep Impact's
projectile, however, will be the first to crash into one.
Deep Impact will allow scientists to study the inside of a comet by observing
the debris ejected from the crater.
``It can give us an understanding of what the solar system looked like during
its formation, and what contributions comets may have made to our life here
on Earth,'' Graf said Thursday.
The impact should be visible from Earth - 83 million miles away - with the
aid of a telescope.
The mission poses no threat to Earth, Graf said. The impact crater will be
small compared with the overall size of the comet's nucleus.
NASA's approval of Deep Impact was made less than two weeks after the space
agency pulled the plug on another mission to the same comet. Space Technology
4/Champollion would have landed on Tempel 1 and drilled beneath the surface.
NASA administrators decided to favor Deep Impact because it was focused
solely on science and fit into existing budget plans, said Doug Isbell, a
NASA spokesman in Washington, D.C.
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
