FOUR, count 'em, FOUR big rockets launching in next seven days Spaceports are increasingly common these days but, if the coming week is anything to go by, then some sort of rocketry air traffic control could be something the boffins need to sort out. In all, four launches are planned for the coming week, from four different countries. This rate of activity is a reflection of quite how …
Pardon my ignorance here, but would that not be quite dangerous to the probe? How big a crater will it make? I can see how the probe can be behind the asteroid to avoid getting hit by debris right after the explosion, but surely there will be lots of stuff floating about once it returns to the crater. Or am I being overly dramatic and the explosion will be a tiny pop?
That icon was closest to how I imagine the "mining" will look from distance. Maybe I should stop reading sci-fi.
Don't worry, El Reg got the details wrong. The probe won't be landing, but staying at a safe distance. It will launch its nuke small charge - then drop mobile infantry, who'll go down to kill all the bugs take samples, then (any survivors) return to the craft, and come back to earth. There's absolutely nothing to worry about.
It's going to be there for about a year - it'll be in orbit around the asteroid, not hovering behind it.
It won't be an explosion though - it's a collision from its first probe, so will be pretty small. Besides, all the crap will still land on the asteroid, it'll just take a few hours to do so in the low gravity (see Philae's 7 hour bounce)
The launch crew will be crossing fingers and toes that this launch goes to plan. Its predecessor, CBERS 3, failed to reach its assigned altitude and crashed back to Earth just over a year ago and a second failure will see Chinese rocketry experts lose some serious face lined up against the wall.
FTFY!!!
(Because failure is not an option this time!)
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