Some of the recent news has renewed my geek driven interest in space. I confess, I went to Space Camp as a kid and loved every minute of it. They made me Mission Commander of our simulated shuttle mission, and I even bought a little blue flight suit and lots of patches to sew on it. Bad, I know.
Anyway, the Mars Rovers have been fun to follow. I was expecting a little more of a dog and pony show for today's press release. The anticipation leading up to it reminded me of Forest Gump: my friends had told me how great it was, when I finally came around to seeing it, disappointment was the only possible outcome.
I laugh every time I see the Diet Pepsi commercial that shows the Martians taking the wheels off the rover and putting it up on cinder blocks. That's clever.
Anyway, I am reading about this comet chasing mission and thinking- no way. There is no way this will be pulled off. Landing a washing machine sized probe on a comet? I just don't think that is going to happen. Another article I read said the probe was going to have to harpoon the comet and reel itself in, seeing as how there isn't enough gravity to actually "land" on it.
I hate to be pessimistic, but my prediction is bleak. Hitting a comet, which can't be very big, 10+ years from now millions of miles away? No offense to the Europeans who worked on it, but considering their recent adventures in space-- the failed Arianne rocket launch recently, and the M.I.A. Beagle, their track record is not so hot. Good luck, you are really going to need it.
Yin says, "Why do people do things like this? Its like Jackass for geeks. Somewhere there are a bunch of people sitting together thinking up the next craziest thing to try to pull off."
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