Watching NASA try to punch a hole in a comet is not the most involving thing you can do. Basically you are looking at the control center at Cal Tech which consists of a few dozen guys and a couple of women sitting in front of computer screens staring glumly at them. The woman host say's they're really excited, but they don't show it much.
We are getting "spectacular" images, or so we are told. Basically it looks like a lumpy white potato in a black field. The final maneuvers took place about a minute ago. It consisted of a guy reading a string of numbers. Now they are showing a very fuzzy "high resolution" picture of the target.
About ten minutes out now.
Another string of numbers -- 0.23 per cent -- brief applause -- back to staring at screens. The reason for the applause was that they had confirmed that the final maneuver had worked as hoped. The host says they're really excited but they're still not showing much.
Five minutes out now.
A small group, about a dozen people, has formed near one of the doors to the command center and is looking up at a monitor. They, at least seem to be showing a little excitement.
There are updates. A red warning light popped up, but we were told it wasn't important.
Now it's about 20 seconds to the beginning of the sequences on the flyby that are about to capture [images of?] the impact event.
Closeup of the group near the door. Most of them are college-age kids -- the older guys are all working.
New image from the impactor. There are "circular features" [look like impact craters to me] on the comet. The impactor is going to hit the lower end of the object as presented in the image.
The image is going out. Degraded by dust impacts that sandblast the optics. What comes through is unenhanced and not very clear even at a "few meters resolution."
"Can't believe they're paying us to have this much fun." Yeah, he really said that.
Impactor is moving at six miles/second -- "faster than a speeding bullet/that puts superman to shame." He said that too.
Impact -- they lost the image. The students are applauding and cheering. Now confirmation. Everyone applauds. Lots of handshakes.
The impact image is apparently spectacular, and they are all remarking on it. But the TV doesn't show it. Here we go. The image shows a bright flash radiating out from the lower part of the comet -- visual confirmation that they hit what they were aiming at. WOW! It IS spectacular! So cool!
Administrator says to settle down -- they still have one more spacecraft to worry about. Sustained applause.
People are getting back to work.
More images will be coming in for thirteen more minutes. The impact image will be on the front pages in the morning.
When you think about it -- the whole thing is pretty amazing. To hit a target at that distance.
They hit it within about one second of the predicted time.
Now they're trying to get pictures of the impact crater.
Navigation was perfect. Impact blast was bigger than anyone expected. Now they have to analyze the spectrometer data to see what was released.
Enough for now. Time to go -- the congress-critters are showing up for photo-ops.
Bye. Signing off at 2:13 est.
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