Friday, January 2, 2004
Now this is cool. It's just amazing to me that mankind is capable of a feat like this.
CNN.com - Spacecraft survives close encounter with comet - Jan. 2, 2004 
At 2:44 p.m. ET today, the Stardust spacecraft reached its closest point with the massive chunk of ice and rock known as the Wild 2 Comet, getting within 200 miles at a relative speed of 13,645 mph, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
At that point, the craft made a turn, pointing a camera at the nucleus of the comet and snapping pictures of the dark mass. The comet was also expected to stretch its robotic arm to trap comet dust in a tennis-racket-shaped catcher filled with a material called aerogel.
Everything appeared to go well, but it could take about 30 hours for the data to be beamed back to Earth confirming the collection of the space particles, NASA said.
"The signal is coming in and we've passed the closest approach point without any injury," said asteroid expert Don Yeomans, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.
The hope is that the dust, which has been lingering in the cold of space for billions of years, could provide clues to how the universe formed -- including the stars, planets and even our solar system...
Never mind the science. How cool would it be drink a scotch/rocks with ice from a comet? Umm...it is water-ice isn't it? OK, nevermind.
Awww...what a waste.
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, p.44
The prowess of a free West versus the backwardness and death culture of the incredibly oil- and money-rich but vision- and value-challenged Arab and Muslim world.