Ferchi

So why go to this time and trouble, not to mention expense Rosetta has already cost around $1bn to get up close and personal with yet another bit of space rock? As well as Nears soft landing on an asteroid, weve also had assorted missions like ESAs (which flew by Halleys Comet in 1986),Michael Kors, Nasas (which sidled up to two comets and an asteroid) and most famously Nasas 2005 which,Michael Kors, like a playground bully, smashed defenceless comet in its face. The official reason for firing an 820lb (372kg) lump of copper at the comet was to learn about its composition by analysing the crater and debris (unfortunately, so thick was the dust cloud thrown up by the collision that the crater was largely obscured). But after growing up with a sci-fi surfeit of laser cannons, photon torpedoes and ray guns, Ive a feeling many will have backed the mission just because it went into space and zapped something.