Next Fourth of July will put a lump of copper into the path of an onrushing comet – taking pictures all the way. They will take pictures of the resulting crater. A hole photo.
The project is called Deep Impact. The deep impact on taxpayers is $330 million.
Richard Grammier, manager of the project for Jet Propulsion Laboratory has this to say about the project, "Blow things up? I'm there. Yeah, I don't have any issue with that."
Deep Impact is name after a 1998 Hollywood second rate movie about a comet headed straight for Earth.
Recently NASA employed a Hollywood team to grab a capsule called Genesis that had collected samples of solar wind. The capsule’s parachute failed to open and the helicopter pilot was unable to grab the device. Result 280 million dollars of junk.
NASA is on a rampage of spending even after killing several astronauts in recent missions “as they slipped the surly bonds”.
Why isn’t space left to private enterprise?
Pyromaniacs like Richard Grammier and the Genesis Mission Circus waste lives, money and time.
NASA burns up money, equipment and people. Technologies like space planes and lighter than air craft that can sail out of the atmosphere are bypassed.
Imagine giant catapults throwing boulders across the Atlantic being used to explore the world. If Columbus had presented Queen Isabella a scheme like that he would have had a one way trip to the dungeon.
Would this have been a cute idea in the 1960’s? And now?
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