Just my thought. Could there be a secondary motive for this mission. Will this tell us anything about diverting comets that could potentially hit the Earth?

Not really.

On the one hand, learning more about a comet's composition would be useful if we ever did need to divert one.

However, the impact itself is going to be so small, it won't tell us much of anything about what's required to move a comet.

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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
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Avatar courtesy of Bunny.

Does ramming a mosquito into a semitrailer have any significant effect?

No.

All right, on to Plan B.

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It will be nice to know that we actually can hit a comet before we send a nuclear warhead after a big one.

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And learning the composition of the things can help us decide if using a nuclear warhead is the best plan. We don't want to break it up into tiny pieces by accident.

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Decent question. I don't think it was the primary reason for the mission but, as others have pointed out, information gleaned from this endeavor could be helpful in any future deflection attempt.

I've read that there will be a very slight change in velocity of about (IIRC)0.00014 inches per second. It will be interesting to monitor the comet over the next few months to see if there has any significant change. If the impact opens up a new and fresh jet, it may have a long term affect.

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It is a de facto dry run. A single pulse unit (like that developed for Orion) with the tungsten shaped charge would take the place of the inert copper impactor--so pretty much the self-same craft could be used, and the warhead being about the same size.

So no Special Space Shuttle from Armageddon--no pulse spaceship like the Messiah from the movie DEEP IMPACT...

Just another Delta II.
(yawn).

Ilike the idea of "Just another Delta II"...we know it works. Just look at what happened to the spacecraft in the movies Algoug really having those spacecraft available would absolutely rock!

So far we've rammed a comet and soft-landed on an asteroid (along with several fly-bys at various distances)--both missions could be seen as dry runs for diverting an impactor. And with the long duration tests of ion drive, and tests of solar sails, we are building options for when we may have to divert an impactor--do a soft landing and strap a solar sail or ion drive to it; or fly-by, soft land, or ram it with a nuke...

These are also steps that could be used for mining operations...

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441!!!! :)

Depends on the closing velocity of said mosquito and said truck.

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J Pax

I'd rather have a big rocket place a chemical stage on an impactor as put a nuke on that Delta. Its solids have been known to explode. The SRBs are actually safer--and have caisson-like construction to really hold them together.

And we launch the Delta II to hit Comet Wright---#######! Run---fallout!

Keep nukes on HLLVs--with engine-out capability.

Well, why don't we consult the mission objectives in:

DEEP IMPACT: A LARGE-SCALE ACTIVE EXPERIMENT ON A COMETARY NUCLEUS (PDF, 13.2 megabytes) by A'Hearn, Belton, et al.

Nope. I don't see anything there about practicing for comet diversion. Why would they leave that out if it were a mission objective? You'd think they could have sold the mission more easily if there were more objectives in the proposal to be accomplished without additional cost.

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Okay, how close to the speed of light would the mosquito have to get for its mass to match that of the truck? An exercise for the reader...

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Pretty simple for a Mississippi mosquito, y'all.

MS mosquito speed = C(0.00000000027182*10E-15)

Y'all kin hear 'em comin' fum a mile away! Almos' as loud as ol' number 3, bless 'im!

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