Optimism is a beautiful thing!

[Snake-Aes]

Recently the japanese spacecraft Hayabusa returned to earth. Leaving was troublesome, it didn't land right and on return it brought nothing.
The idea was hustling around since 1986~ and the whole thing's costed nearly 2 billion dollars.
They're really happy with what they saw. They collected a couple thousand particles from the machine which "are almost certainly not from earth" and "the biggest bits are nearly 10 micrometers wide", and "we collected Troilite, a mineral that doesn't exist naturally on Earth".

I know, I know, when you spend a billion dollars with something, you might as well squeeze what you can from it, and hey, space troll rocks. It's actually quite cheerful if you think about it... but damn, I don't know if I can look at such an operation and say "success".

[Passionario]

and the whole thing's costed nearly 2 billion dollars

Which, I might add, is less than the amount that Americans spend on chewing gum per year.

[Snake-Aes]

Which amounts to a yearly expenditure of 10 dollars per year per person. It's a different view :p

[culhag]

Landing a probe on an asteroid and getting it back to Earth is hard. (really)

[Snake-Aes]

I believe their word for "we have no idea how to pull that off" is "Challenge".

[Korola]

http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html

[Rachmaninoff]

soooo they scraped off space dust with a microscope from something thats been floating around since 1986? And it had a bad landing?... where is the optimism?

[Kiorken]

soooo they scraped off space dust with a microscope from something thats been floating around since 1986? And it had a bad landing?... where is the optimism?

I think discovering materials that are completely foreign to Earth is a fair reason to be optimistic. This could prove to be an indicator of "space mining" in the future.

[Passionario]

Which amounts to a yearly expenditure of 10 dollars per year per person. It's a different view :p

I'd gladly pay 10 dollars per year if that would bring us closer to the stars.

[Lightbeard]

soooo they scraped off space dust with a microscope from something thats been floating around since 1986? And it had a bad landing?... where is the optimism?

I think discovering materials that are completely foreign to Earth is a fair reason to be optimistic. This could prove to be an indicator of "space mining" in the future.

Space Mining?



I bet the plans are already being drawn up,

[fuzzygeek]

Space exploration is nothing if not an optimistic undertaking.

[Chicken]

soooo they scraped off space dust with a microscope from something thats been floating around since 1986? And it had a bad landing?... where is the optimism?

I think discovering materials that are completely foreign to Earth is a fair reason to be optimistic. This could prove to be an indicator of "space mining" in the future.

Not sure if Trollite is good for that, pretty sure it'd be very flammable indeed.

[Korola]

Which amounts to a yearly expenditure of 10 dollars per year per person. It's a different view :p

I'd gladly pay 10 dollars per year if that would bring us closer to the stars.

This thing drew a lot of criticism initially, but it has provided some of the most beautiful images you could never imagine.

[Gorlando]

Which amounts to a yearly expenditure of 10 dollars per year per person. It's a different view :p

I'd gladly pay 10 dollars per year if that would bring us closer to the stars.

This thing drew a lot of criticism initially, but it has provided some of the most beautiful images you could never imagine.

I went through a mere 100 pictures (about half of which didn't have desktop versions) and I already have 10 new desktop options.

<Space nerd.

[Maelsstrom]

I don't know if I can look at such an operation and say "success".

I guess it would depend on what the project set out to accomplish! I would say spaceflight is an enormous accomplishment. Would it be a success if the $2B was the correct and approved budget? You can disagree with funding this kind of objective, but once funded, does that make it any less successful?