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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 29 2020, @11:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the asteroid-dead-ahead dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Despite humanity's current struggle against the novel coronavirus, and despite it taking up most of our attention, other threats still exist. The very real threat of a possible asteroid strike on Earth in the future is taking a backseat for now, but it's still there.

Though an asteroid strike seems kind of ephemeral right now, it's a real threat, and one that—unlike a coronavirus—has the potential to end humanity. Agencies like NASA and the ESA are still working on their plans to protect us from that threat.

NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission is scheduled to launch on July 22, 2021. It's a demonstration mission to study the use of kinetic impact to deflect an asteroid. It'll head for the tiny binary asteroid system called Didymos, (or 65803 Didymos.) This double asteroid system poses no threat to Earth.

[...] The engine comes in two primary components: the thruster and the power processing unit (PPU.) NEXT-C is getting ready for the mission with a series of tests, both performance and environmental. The thruster was put through vibration, thermal vacuum and performance tests before being integrated with its PPU. It was also subjected to simulated spaceflight conditions: the extreme vibration during launch, and the extreme cold of space.

NEXT-C is a powerful engine. It's nothing like a rocket, which requires a massive amount of thrust to lift something away from Earth's gravity. But in terms of ion drives, it's a very powerful unit. It's about three times more powerful than the NSTAR ion drives on NASA's DAWN and Deep Space One spacecraft.

NEXT can produce 6.9 kW thrust power and 236 mN thrust. The engine has produced the highest total impulse of any ion engine: 17 MN·s. It also has a specific impulse, which is a measure of how efficiently it uses propellant, of 4,190 seconds, compared to NSTAR's 3,120.


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  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2020, @11:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2020, @11:33AM (#976907)

    I DONT WANT SKIN CANCER FROM THE SUN
    BUT I CANT USE GOLDFISH IN MY VAGINA
    THE LABIA FOLDS BACK AND LAUGHS AT ME
    SAYS THINGS LIKE HOW ABOUT SOME COCO
    PUFFS AND MY TERMINAL LANGUAGE CHANGES
    FROM ENGLISH TO CANTONESE AND THEN BACK
    AGAIN AFTER I PLEAD IN THE TERMINAL WITH
    THE PERSON READING MY WALL REQUESTS

    IS THE CHINESE EXPANDING THEIR POWERS
    TO BSD? I FELT COLD THE OTHER NIGHT
    SO I TRIED TO PULL A BLANKET OF HAM
    UP OVER MY BODY BUT THE ROTTEN MEAT
    SMELL DROVE ME TO OPEN THE WINDOW
    AND SOMEONE WAS PISSING ON THE WINDOW
    AND THEN IT CAME INTO ME WHEN I WAS
    SCREAMING THE STREAM ENTERED INTO
    MY MOUTH IT TASTED LIKE RUM SO I JUST
    STOOD THERE AND SOME MAN OUTSIDE
    SAID DO YOU WANT DESSERT I SAID YES
    PLEASE AND BEFORE I KNEW IT I WAS
    IN A TRANCE I COULDN'T MOVE BECAUSE
    THE BREAD MAKER MACHINE WOULD NOT
    MAKE BREAD I YELLED AT IT AND PUT
    A DEAD SKUNK INTO IT AND SAID FUCK
    YOU I'LL MAKE BREAD WHENEVER I WANT.

    FUCK YOU BREAD MAKING MACHINE.

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