Codebreaker

Space harpoon!

Marc Sanchez Dec 15, 2011


NASA wants to shoot comets with a space harpoon. Go on, play the movie in your head. I’ll wait.

OK? Great.

It’s already built a prototype. The BBC reports: “The engineers believe it would be safer to collect comet material using the equipment rather than trying to land on the celestial bodies.” The idea is to launch the harpoon up to a mile away, stick it into a comet, and reap the sweet space-junk rewards. This has got to be one of the coolest up-and-coming jobs ever. Wanted: comet wrangler.

 

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