Posted: 7/4/2005 5:00:41 AM EDT
| Stayed up till 2:15 watching the Deep Impact show over the internet last night. Anybody want to try to calculate the MOA of that shot? |
why
A 300 kg copper bullet. Nearly 700 pounds of projectile, moving at an unbelieveable speed. Faster than any bullet here on Earth. 10 kilometers per second. 10 times faster than a 20" barreled AR firing 45 grain ammo. The target is huge by even AK 47 standards  (about 1/2 the size of Manhattan). But the distance makes it only a fraction of a second of angle.
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I was up all night watching NASA also. Some of the photos were great! Now the say many more to come and even better photos after they are cleaned up some. One hell of a fireworks show in space for the 4th. 
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Well duhhh! They used one of those funny looking 24" uppers, I bet. They got mad budget, you know. |
It wasn't just simple copper either. It was a new super-secret "blended metal" projectastilettogrenade. 
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Doubt you could afford it. About $333,000,000 for the project. Launched the beginning of the year. Impact happened about 85,000,000 miles from Earth. About 27,900 feet per second, average velocity. The impactor was fired 48 hours before impact. Even suborbital rocket launches require permit...unless it is a hobby-type rocket using commercial motors. Even some of the amateur rockets need FAA permits. |
COOL
So you choose to ignore the absolute certainty that the earth will eventually be hit with another "world killer" meteor or comet? You really can't see the application here? |
I believe that all money spent on cancer research is a waste because we don't want those people in the gene pool anyway. It's a damn good thing neither you or I are in charge of this kindof of thing.  They get any info on the internal makeup of the comet was yet? |
+1K |