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fuzzy Deep Impact and NASA's new prize

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Written by staff

Wednesday, 30 March 2005

fuzzy Deep Impact

The Deep Impact craft-the NASA probe named after a movie- is well on its way to a July 4 (or should we say, Independence Day) rendezvous with comet Tempel 1.

Upon reaching the comet, Deep Impact will fire an Impactor into the comet and take pictures of the results. The resulting crater may be as small as a house or as large as a football stadium, and potentially as deep as 14 stories, according to a recent space.com article.

However, NASA has reported that one of the main cameras is not able to fully focus. There are other cameras and instruments on the spacecraft, but none capable of the same resolution.

Engineers are working on the problem.

maybe you can do it better

In keeping with the Bush administration's firm conviction that the government can't do anything right, NASA has begun offering new cash prizes for good ideas. Following upon the success of the X Prize, NASA will pay out $50,000 each to the winners of the upcoming Tether Challenge and the Beam Power Challenge, meant to improve tether technology and develop ways to transmit energy wirelessly.

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