Science

Yes, NASA Really Is Figuring Out How to ‘Harpoon’ Comets — Here’s Why

Taking a sample from most earthy objects is easy using either a scooping or coring method. But in outer space, sample collection is a different ball game due to a lack of gravity and moving object.

Comets in particular could be especially hard, considering they are often spinning and traveling upwards of 150,000 miles per hour. NASA deems these as reason enough to think up an alternative to landing on comets for sample collection.

NASA Developing a Harpoon to Retrieve Samples for Fast Moving, Hard to Reach Comets

This ballista tests prototype harpoons in the lab. (Photo: NASA/Rob Andreoli)

The idea it has developed so far? Harpooning comets. NASA reports in a news release that it’s developing a harpoon to shoot at comets and pull back a sample. The concept is currently be researched in a laboratory setting using a ballista:

In a lab the size of a large closet stands a metal ballista (large crossbow) nearly six feet tall, with a bow made from a pair of truck leaf springs and a bow string made of steel cable 1/2 inch thick. The ballista is positioned to fire vertically downward into a bucket of target material. For safety, it’s pointed at the floor, because it could potentially launch test harpoon tips about a mile if it was angled upwards. An electric winch mechanically pulls the bow string back to generate a precise level of force, up to 1,000 pounds, firing projectiles to velocities upwards of 100 feet per second.

Here’s more about the harpoon concept and current research:

Right now, NASA reports that it is looking into how much energy would be required to shoot the harpoon at a comet at different depths and with different compositions. NASA Donald Wegel, lead engineer on the project, said that researchers aren‘t exactly sure what they’re going to be met with in terms of comet composition, so its harpoon will need to be ready for anything:

The team is working out the best tip design, cross-section and explosive powder charge for the harpoon, using the crossbow to fire tips at various speeds into different materials like sand, ice, and rock salt. They are also developing a sample collection chamber to fit inside the hollow tip. “It has to remain reliably open as the tip penetrates the comet’s surface, but then it has to close tightly and detach from the tip so the sample can be pulled back into the spacecraft,” says Wegel. “Finding the best design that will package into a very small cross section and successfully collect a sample from the range of possible materials we may encounter is an enormous challenge.”

NASA Developing a Harpoon to Retrieve Samples for Fast Moving, Hard to Reach Comets

Demonstration of a sample being poured from the collection chamber. (Photo: NASA/Rob Andreoli)

Wegel says that comet samples would give researchers more materials to analyze about to the origins of our solar system, as comets are thought to be composed of materials form its formation.

[H/T Wired]

Comments (52)

1 2
  • Eyeball
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 11:05am

    So it seems if we start doing this harpooning of comets, then maybe we could harpoon and tie on to an asteroid and slightly gradually slowly pull it away from it’s earth threatening orbit. Better than trying to blast it apart, which may be more fun.

    Report Post » Eyeball  
  • jingoistic.patriot
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:50am

    And just how is this all going to accomplish Barack Hussein Obama’s (Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm) directive to make Muslims feel better about themselves?

    Report Post »  
  • TelepromoterNChief
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 10:17am

    Sending a man to the moon is so last year. I am enjoying this quirky fun way NASA is trying to justify their purpose by shooting bow and arrows in apace. Look out George Lucas!!!

    Report Post »  
  • The Bushmaster
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 9:50am

    WOW!!! A whole 100 feet per second??? Note to scientist. That aint very fast considering the lowly .22 rifle shoots bullets about 1200 feet per second.

    Report Post »  
  • xzero01
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 7:28am

    Asteroid Apophis look it up people

    Report Post » xzero01  
  • dnewton
    Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:02am

    This might have some relationship to a deep penetration weapon to get Iranian Nukes. Have we asked permission from the UN to do this research?

    Report Post »  
  • pmjr-jones
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 10:26pm

    some way to waist tax dollars. some ceo thought of it not to give raises to the employees.

    Report Post »  
  • pmjr-jones
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 10:24pm

    way to waist are tax dallors. some ceo thought of it so there no raises for the employees and ruin unoins.

    Report Post »  
    • dadbarnes
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 4:11am

      …obviously almost as much as the “waist” of tax “dallors” used in your public education… (You can thank the teacher’s “unoins”)

      Report Post »  
  • TROONORTH
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 10:02pm

    NASA should be involved in the manned exploration of space. Period. Nobody can argue that the technological spin-off of the space programme has helped to form the world we live in. But now that Obamma has surrendered the technological high ground to people who couldn’t launch a balloon when Armstrong walked on the moon, the technological leadership of the world has been abandoned and we must go hat in hand to the Russians and soon the Chinese, Indians and Japanese to beg a ride to the space station that we built.

    “Change you can believe in.”

    Report Post » TROONORTH  
  • palerider54
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 9:24pm

    I don’t need no stinkin comet samples to tell me how the universe was formed.

    All you got to do is read the book of Genesis.

    God made the heavens and the earth, and then he rested.

    Then God made man, and they both rested.

    Then God made woman, and nobody has rested since.

    Report Post »  
    • Iclonic
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 1:03pm

      I want answers. Genesis is fairly Vague.

      I’m conflicted with religion, but respect it in it’s entirety.

      I read somewhere that people use Religion to fill the holes. That’s understandable. But when someone tries to fill those holes with science, they get mad. It’s like…they want those holes to be there.

      :l I find that disconcerting personally. Science isn’t a bad thing. It needs to stay objective, or it wouldn’t be called science would it? It’d be more like…sorcery. :P

      Religion isn’t bad either. But the extremes of Atheism and Religion are both bad, and they fuel eachother full of hatred against eachother. Why can’t we just all get along? :(

      Report Post »  
  • Tri-ox
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 9:02pm

    So, this is what NASA wastes our tax dollars on these days, when they are not focusing on their/obama’s “primary mission” of muslim outreach – http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45096.

    Uh, it is time to defund and rethink NASA.

    Report Post » Tri-ox  
    • JLinc
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 5:36pm

      Yeah, screw NASA! I mean their percentage of the budget must be HUGE! What? It’s barely over half of one percent? SCREW NASA! It‘s not like they’ve done anything for me! Except..you know shoe insoles, ear thermometers, long distance telecommunication, smoke detectors, cordless tools, fireproof uniforms, and water filters, among countless other things. Seriously, of all the things to complain about what your money is spent on, you choose the one thing that does so much for so little…

      Report Post »  
  • last frontier
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 7:23pm

    SPSST! NASA UH didnt you hear you have been replaced, the military is running there own space program, and the private sector is running there own space program, so I guess that just leaves you with bumming a ride with Russia, manipulating climate data, and training muslims to ride on top of there scud missiles.

    Report Post » last frontier  
  • Impenitent
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 7:18pm

    at least they aren’t sending a team of deep sea oil drillers…

    Report Post »  
  • Lateris
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:47pm

    I want to land my ship on a comet and take out those Hydrogues in the gas giants with a comet!!!

    Report Post »  
  • 4X4in
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:38pm

    Yawn!

    Report Post »  
  • BurntHills
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:28pm

    outrageous, considering what it costs US TAXPAYERS to fund such fluff. .. maybe obama’s new pro-muslim NASA knows something about comets raining down on us in Dec 2012 if that monster is re-elected.

    Report Post » BurntHills  
  • BobtheMoron
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:22pm

    This is a stupid story. Why is The Blaze running this crap?

    Report Post » BobtheMoron  
  • mac410
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:05pm

    Huh? Are they going to repeal the laws of physics? Remember, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?

    So when the bow is released the platform in space that is firing it will head away from the launch site at exactly the same speed and 180° from the direction that the projectile is launched.

    Report Post »  
    • NickyLouse
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:32pm

      The concept is probably based on a speed relative to the platform from which it is launched. Therefore, if the initial absolute acceleration of the projectile is 100 fpsps then the initial absolute acceleration of the platform would be some measure in the opposite direction in inverse proportion to the ratio of their masses that could be countered with an energy source. Practically speaking, the counterforce could be accomplished simultaneous to the launching of the dart.

      Report Post » NickyLouse  
    • brntout
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:43pm

      Kinetic energy.Wow,knock that sucker off a degree or 2 what happens when it catches the next gravity well during orbit.Did the build a glove that can catch it before it becomes an ELE precipitator?

      Report Post »  
    • Henrys_Ghost
      Posted on December 16, 2011 at 9:01am

      “Huh? Are they going to repeal the laws of physics? ” Don’t have to, the normal laws don’t apply to Obamma, right?

      Report Post » Henrys_Ghost  
  • ZildjianLudwig
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:02pm

    “The concept is currently be researched”

    “…would give researchers more materials to analyze about to the origins…”

    I love you Glenn, but could The Blaze please get an editor? For those of us actually READING the articles (as opposed to just skimming), these editorial hiccups are distracting, and amateur.

    It’s not like this story was breaking with such urgency that it had to be rushed out, un-reviewed.

    Report Post »  
  • rabblechat
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:41pm

    I wish they would work on “harpooning” some jobs…

    Report Post » rabblechat  
    • Mike N
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:59pm

      More important than successfully developing the right tip to the harpoon is developing a solution to the problem of the tether not ripping a gaping hole in the spacecraft that is supposed to retrieve a harpoon unintentionally embedded in a runaway comet.

      Report Post »  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:04pm

      A “Runaway Comet” what the heck is that? They were zooming around long before men walked the earth. I‘d say it’s more like a “Runaway” human species.

      Report Post »  
  • John in GA
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:31pm

    >>“firing projectiles to velocities upwards of 100 feet per second”

    I guess that, for a NASA-engineered, comet-destroyer-super-harpoon-firing crossbow, you have to say something that sounds more impressive than “68 miles per hour”.

    Report Post »  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:48pm

      Haha. Yes, and 100 ft per second won’t launch it 1 mile into the air. Wouldn’t it be better to launch it with an explosive launch? Their idea of a harpoon seems stupid to me.

      Report Post »  
    • Eliasim
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:59pm

      Of course the reality is that they should leave comets well enough alone, because a slight change in it’s course might have drastic effects 50 years down the road as it travels the solar system.

      Report Post »  
    • quicker
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:23pm

      Shoots a bb from a pump up bb gun doe`s 600 plus.

      Report Post » quicker  
    • brntout
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 7:20pm

      @ELIASIM Yes I asked if the built a glove to catch it after they kineticise trhe comet.Maybe we should fear for our children not the debt ,but what typical lib unintended consequenses through a defunct space program is about to propogate.

      Report Post »  
  • brntout
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:28pm

    This should make peta ,the whales and large women on the beach happy that mankind is no longer trawling the oceans searching for something to harpoon.Instead the deep oceans of space present the ultimate challenge of trying to shoot a bullet with a bullet. Sorry if the opening line sounded a little crass but we’ve all heard the joke before.

    Report Post »  
  • KeystoneState
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:22pm

    100 feet per second, heck, my Red Ryder shoots about 330!

    Report Post » KeystoneState  
  • brotherjohn
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:20pm

    I wonder how they will overcome the “equal and opposite reaction” of firing a projectile in a weightless environment.

    Any ideas?

    Report Post » brotherjohn  
    • Old Truckers
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:33pm

      Hhmm, and what about when they retrieve the probe from the ground, won’t that pull the whole thing into the comet?

      Aside from the curiosity factor, is all this really necessary?

      Report Post » Old Truckers  
    • OneofMany
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:42pm

      Well if force F = (m x d )/ t ( force = [mass x distance ] / time)… then if you fire it from a much larger mass, the force might be insignificant.

      Report Post » OneofMany  
    • OneofMany
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:51pm

      ooops, been a long time since I took physics…. F = m x a (mass x acceleration) or for a more specific equation =
      F = G(m1)(m2) / d2

      F is force; G is the gravitational constant, which is used to show how gravity accelarates an object; m1 is the mass of one object; m2 is the mass of the second object; and d2 is the distance between the objects.

      A force is always a push, pull, or a twist, and it affects objects by pushing them up, pulling them down, pushing them to a side, or by changing their motion or shape in some other way.

      Report Post » OneofMany  
    • sonseeker
      Posted on December 14, 2011 at 6:37pm

      they will rely on the law of conservation of momentum.

      Report Post » sonseeker  
  • randy
    Posted on December 14, 2011 at 5:20pm

    Why don’t we just send one of those Muslims up there with one of the swords they use to chop peoples heads off to hack off some of the samples?
    We all know how much they have contributed to Science, Math and Culture.
    Just ask Obama.

    Report Post » randy  
    • Captain Crunch
      Posted on December 15, 2011 at 12:42am

      I think it would be more effective to send that Muslem with a bomb strapped to his belly. He might see Mohamed on the way….being sodomized by 70 horney goats. I sometimes excell at disrespect.

      Report Post »  
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