Comet probe returns, Pluto probe departs
January 13, 2006If everything goes well, NASA’s Stardust probe will land somewhere in Utah on Sunday. It contains cometary material that it picked up during an encounter with the Wild 2 comet nearly two years ago. Since then it has been making its way back to earth with the precious cargo.
Then on Tuesday next week, the New Horizons probe should launch to begin a decade-long journey to Pluto. Kinda feel sorry though for some of the scientists–a lot of them have worked years on this project but they’re in their 50’s now. Meaning they will be nearing retirement age as the probe finally starts sending back science from the Pluto encounter.
NASA has traditionally been pretty good with robotic exploration like this. It’s the manned stuff they seem to have trouble with lately. I kinda wish the US would not waste more money on the manned-space portion and divert those resources instead to more robotic explorers.
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