Friday, October 5, 2012

NASA is about to do a little plinking

From a loooooong way off.

Early on, when a kid first gets his hands on a firearm, he "plinks." He* takes shots at any and everything in sight that looks like it might explode or do some other fun thing when the bullet hits the target. He may go through a handful of ammo, but it's part of the learning experience.

Sort of like this one.

Now that the guys at NASA have gotten older and have their hands on muuuuuch cooler firearms, they've decided to take plinking to a higher level. Curiosity, the Mars rover, is about to take a shot at a rock. There's an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (I told you they had cooler weaponry). But, just like a kid, they "wanna see what's inside it." All done, of course, in the name of Science. And Learning.

The target.





Remember, guys, deep breath, exhale slow, and squeeze, don't pull.


2 comments:

  1. I was given my dad's 22 single shot rifle when I turned 15. I spent many a day in the woods and many boxes of 22 shells. I got good at shooting pine cones off the tops of trees. Mom wouldn't let me shoot squirrels because she didn't like eating them. And I wouldn't kill just to kill.

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  2. Last night, over a few adult beverages, the topic of ammo prices came up. My first box (50) of .22's was 50 cents. Penny a shot.

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