I thought they were nuts when I first heard about this last week(see April 7th post "NASA probe returning with solar booty"). I still think they're nuts, but evidently they're completely serious about the endeavor:
"Somewhere over a wide stretch of Arizona desert today, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will perform its best impersonation of James Bond. [...] For a scientific facility best known for shipping six-wheeled rovers to Mars and flinging probes to the far corners of the solar system, the terrestrial exercises might seem a bit mundane. Then again, none of those missions ever involved stunt pilots or helicopters snatching a space probe from midair."
The article goes on to state,
"Decades ago, during the early days of the space race, military jets did much the same thing, capturing film canisters that had been jettisoned by spy satellites and left to parachute through Earth's atmosphere. Since then, though, helicopters have made the process easier, and mission planners expect no problems."
I had no idea we used to do that...and I'm amazed that we (apparently) did. I wonder what the success rate was on that sort of effort?
I'm curious what sort of odds this venture is getting in Vegas.
Posted by thinkum at April 15, 2004 09:53 PM