[extropy-chat] Deep Impact mission goals (was: astrology suit against NASA)

[Amara Graps]

The Deep Impact mission is not without its psychological baggage though.
I saw in the news yesterday an editorial by my friend David Grinspoon

"Collision with a Comet"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/04/opinion/edcomet.php

that defended the idea of hitting the comet. His points are good with
the exception of one [he talked as if it were a long-period comet, of
which there are many, but that this is a short-period comet, of which
there are only about 100], but I think that David doesn't spend enough
time outside of the US to understand how strongly that many people
perceive the Deep Impact mission as a sign of aggression, given the
perception in the world that the US is a military country. It 'looks'
like the Deep Impact space mission is something "military-related".

An Australian journalist at the Deep Impact press conference yesterday
asked the mission manager:

"You are shooting a comet on America's 4th-of-July holiday, can you say
something to that point?"

And the JPL manager did not address it. I think he missed an opportunity
to make better press and help people understand better about the mission
goals.

The mission, whatever its psychological baggage, was executed yesterday
flawlessly. I'm most interested in  the chemistry they find, and I hope
that their spectroscopy can answer that point. The comet astronomers I
know  (and me!) are keen to know if the isotopic deuterium ratio
difference between Standard Mean Ocean Water ('SMOW') and that of
Halley/Hyakatake/Hale-Bopp, which are long-period comets, is similar to
the deuterium ratio difference between SMOW and short period comets,
like Tempel 1. Nobody knows yet the deuterium isotopic ratio of
short-period comets. Did comets bring significant amounts of water to
the Earth or not? How can we know what life outside of the Earth might
be like, if we don't even know how Earth got its water?

This data is likely to be the best chemistry data on comets until
Rosetta arrives at its target comet. So then pretty exciting time for
planetary scientists.

Amara

-- 

***********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD             email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics        vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers            URL:   http://www.amara.com/
***********************************************************************
"I'm just moving clouds today - tomorrow I'll try mountains."
     --Ashleigh Brilliant