Deep Impact

[Jeff S]

They did it..

 

They equated it to trying to hit a bullet with a bullet.

[Peter Waller]

Must be the first time ever that the US has ever fired just one bullet AND hit the target !

[ben88]

what a waste of money.

[Steve Burke]

Ben, history has shown that scientific research is rarely, if ever, a waste of money. The pay-off may not be immediate, it may not be what's expected, but there's almost always a pay-off down the line.

 

Today, we're benefitting from the scientific research of previous generations, research that had no immediate use then. Likewise, future generations will benefit from today's research.

 

Not every bit of research turns out to be worthwhile, the problem is that we don't know in advance what will be useful and what won't.

 

At some time in the future our planet is going to be hit by a major comet again. A previous such hit by a comet only a third of the size of Comet Temple wiped out the dinosaurs, and there have been a great many such impacts in history. It's not a question of if it will happen, but when .

 

This project will tell us a great deal about the composition of comets and the effect of firing a projectile into them. So when the next comet is on a collision course with Earth we'll have a much greater chance of stopping it hitting us.

 

So in this case the benefit may be the continued existance of you, me and the whole human race!

[Newt]

ben88 - you need to get rid of your mobile phone, your digital calculator if you have one and your digital wristwatch if you have one.

 

All these items and quite a long list of others came as unexpected byproducts of other 'useless, money wasting, yada, yada' outer space research.