Prunepicker
11-19-2014, 09:07 PM
Is anyone keeping up with this? I believe this is one exciting adventure. Something
from my childhood.
Just watched "To Catch a Comet" on pbs. It was okay in a sterile sort of way.
At any rate, upon hearing that Philae didn't have a good landing my stomach
sunk. There's still a chance that it will be up and running in a few months.
From The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/16/philae-rosetta-comet-probe)
It began with a bumpy landing and ended with a touching tweet. “I’m feeling a bit
tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap …” tweeted Phil (http://www.politicalforum.com/member.php?u=58325)ae2014.
It was early Saturday morning, and after 57 hours performing science
experiments on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko the
audacious Philae mission was coming to an end. Not enough light was hitting its
solar panels and the spacecraft was preparing to hibernate but, in true Hollywood
style, Philae heroically managed to send back all of its data just before the curtain
fell.
Contact was lost at 00:36 GMT, a few minutes before the scheduled end of the
communications window.
Within the last blocks of data that Philae returned were readings from an
instrument called Cosac. They could reveal the molecular ingredients that
became life on Earth, since comets are remnants from the formation of the
planets 4.6 billion years ago. Their icy bodies preserve the primordial organic
molecules that were incorporated into the Earth and led to the origin of life.
“The data collected by Philae and Rosetta is set to make this mission a
game-changer in cometary science,” said Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project
scientist.
from my childhood.
Just watched "To Catch a Comet" on pbs. It was okay in a sterile sort of way.
At any rate, upon hearing that Philae didn't have a good landing my stomach
sunk. There's still a chance that it will be up and running in a few months.
From The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/16/philae-rosetta-comet-probe)
It began with a bumpy landing and ended with a touching tweet. “I’m feeling a bit
tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap …” tweeted Phil (http://www.politicalforum.com/member.php?u=58325)ae2014.
It was early Saturday morning, and after 57 hours performing science
experiments on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko the
audacious Philae mission was coming to an end. Not enough light was hitting its
solar panels and the spacecraft was preparing to hibernate but, in true Hollywood
style, Philae heroically managed to send back all of its data just before the curtain
fell.
Contact was lost at 00:36 GMT, a few minutes before the scheduled end of the
communications window.
Within the last blocks of data that Philae returned were readings from an
instrument called Cosac. They could reveal the molecular ingredients that
became life on Earth, since comets are remnants from the formation of the
planets 4.6 billion years ago. Their icy bodies preserve the primordial organic
molecules that were incorporated into the Earth and led to the origin of life.
“The data collected by Philae and Rosetta is set to make this mission a
game-changer in cometary science,” said Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project
scientist.