Alright, enough with the Internet humor posts. Time for a shout out to the good folks of Lockheed Martin over at the mouth of Waterton Canyon. Some of these people have been working on this Touch and Go project for 16 years now. It came to fruition this week when, in the span of only a couple of seconds, an 11-foot robotic arm scooped up a bucketful of asteroid dirt 200 million miles from Earth. Way to go, L-M eggheads! Pop a few champagne corks, then get back to work. After all, when your target is only 0.31 of a mile in diameter and it’s orbiting the sun at 61,300 mph, you better not blink or you might miss it.
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U of A! U of A! Goooooo Wildcats!
The tour of the telescope mirror production facility under the stadium is well worth the pain of getting the tickets if you are in Tucson.