On July 4, 2005, my name will be obliterated. NASA is burning my name onto a CD and blasting it off the face of the Earth set on a collision course with a nearby comet. Actually, their precious spacecraft will be spared from this fate as it sits safely away from the fireworks show. The CD will instead be strapped to what is, for all practical purposes, a 370-kg (816 lb) smart bomb to be dropped from the spacecraft and strike the comet with the equivalent of 4.8 tons of TNT [1]. There will be no sign of the CD, or my name, in the resulting stadium-sized crater.
OK, I’m exaggerating. NASA does not have it in for me personally (although sometimes I wonder about this as they keep cutting back some of my favorite missions). NASA has even gone so far as to thank me for my contribution by sending a virtual "participation certificate" stating the following:
"Thank you for your participation in the Deep Impact Discovery Mission to Comet Tempel 1. A compact disc bearing your name will be mounted on the impactor spacecraft that will collide with Tempel 1 making this the first mission ever to look deep inside a comet. You are now part of the future discovery of clues about the beginning of our solar system as your name makes a Deep Impact!"
My name, along with the names of thousands of other space enthusiasts, is being included on this event as part of a campaign to raise public interest in science and the space program. So what’s the deal?
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