Deep Impact (2025)

Sadly, in 2013, NASA lost contact with Deep Impact. The cause: a software glitch that left the spacecraft’s antennas misaligned. After months of silence, they gave up. Deep Impact is now a silent relic drifting through the inner solar system, its last command unfulfilled.

Thanks to Deep Impact and DART, we now know we could deflect an asteroid or comet given 5–10 years of warning. That’s not science fiction. That’s planetary defense.

Why copper? Because copper doesn’t interfere with spectral analysis of the debris. They didn’t want to confuse comet material with spacecraft material. Elegant.