19000 miles
LOHAN's going to have to watch out for stuff like this.
NASA's former Deep Impact comet-bomber space probe, since renamed EPOXI* and reassigned to rendezvous with a second space snowball, has made a successful close pass by the comet Hartley 2. Comet Hartley 2 pictured by the EPOXI mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD Extraplanetary spaceball paparazzo-shot wondrousness. "The …
Whenever I see this sort of thing it impresses the hell out of me that here is a photograph taken thousands of miles away in space. On the other hand the actual images are always something of a letdown. Space is really excting in theory, but the reality is somewhat dull.
But for the mere matter* of getting to within 700 km of the comet I could take this picture with with my very amateur telescope and B&W camera setup.
Surely there is a huge choice of high definition space rated optics and sensors to choose from after all this time spent developing satellite based earth imaging.
Pig ignorant armchair space experts would like to know.
* it impresses the hell out of me too.