Rosetta prepares for Philae probe landing

[Codenwarra]

I reckon it's a triumph, even if Philae ended up in a hole. They're still getting data from it, even if the rotation of the comet sometimes blocks the signal.

I'm old enough to recall people saying that they'll never get anything into orbit. Men in space? Don't even think about it. About this time of year, in 1957, I lay on my back on Gaskell's front yard just after dark and watched a piece of the rocket that launched Sputnik I pass over. Kev Gaskell, who was the local Scoutmaster and a neighbor, having bought land from my parents had somehow found out exactly where and when to look for it. We all saw it.

That shut the naysayers up, or at least most of them. Then Gagarin orbited several times, and only loonies could deny the fact that there were enormous possibilities.

I missed the first Apollo landing on TV, where I lived at the time had no TV and precious little radio. But a customer came in and said they've landed safely so we all breathed easier. I caught some of the other landings later on TV.

Skylab, Mars and Venus landers, a probe passing the through the rings of Saturn, Cobe, the ISS, a Chinese astronaut, an Indian probe reaching Mars.

Shows what a concerted effort can do and it doesn't matter who does it.

Congratulations to Jean-Pierre, Stephan, Holger, Stefano, and all the men and women, from the cleaning staff all the way up. You've done a mighty job.

[GoldenRabbit]

Fingers Still crossed ! We shall know soon now ?

Hopefully we hear something soon:)

[Space Commander Travis]

Do remember, despite the setbacks, what a bloody amazing achievement it has been, 10 years travelling 4 billion miles.. and all the 'gear' onboard being ten years old - with all the pressures of space travel...

That's what I was saying, they do these amazing things getting the gadget there and then the bloody thing nearly always doesn't work properly when they get there.

[TSS]

That's what I was saying, they do these amazing things getting the gadget there and then the bloody thing nearly always doesn't work properly when they get there.

Look at the wider picture of the amount of probes mankind has sent to either planets, comets, asteroids or solar probes - it's a success rate of nearly 70%. That's an impressive statistic when you think what they are actually doing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Solar_System_probes

[seeder]

Scientists working on Philae comet lander say it is time to take more risks with the probe, amid fears its battery might die in hours.

There is an expectation that the robot may be entering its last day of useable power on the ice object 67P.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will upload commands today to tell Philae to deploy its drill.

The hope is that it can pull up some samples to analyse in the robot's onboard laboratories.

It is a high risk activity, however, because the torque could destabilise the delicately placed lander.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30050349

[Merc14]

Not that my opinion matters but I agree with this decision. The Philae mission was designed from the outset to be a short one and I'd bet they have gotten a big pecentage of what they sent it there for already, so use the drill and go for broke because the game ends tonight either way. Also, maybe it will bounce to a more illuminated location and they get a break with the solar panels, although, admittedly, that is fairly far fetched.

[KevinP]

Kind of reminds me of when Apollo 12 got to the Moon and their camera got pointed at the Sun by accident and ruined it, hence all we had was audio and the pictures they took themselves when they got home. It's was still a very successful mission.

[Merc14]

A good article on what Philae is dealing with http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/194257-philaes-battery-is-running-out-esa-will-take-some-heroic-risks-to-save-the-comet-lander

It sounds like all the science packages are working and Philae is transmitting back a lot of great data for the science team so mission accomplished but drilling into a comet is too good to pass up so good luck Philae.

[seeder]

Update from 13.10

So scientists have managed to drill into comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko but they do not know if Philae's batteries will last long enough for samples to be studied by its scientific equipment. It's going to be tight. The batteries are likely to run out around 8pm, but the team is not expecting the next signal back from the lander until midnight. By then it may be too late.

Quote We are not sure whether the batteries will still have enough energy to transmit the data when we get in contact later this evening. Around midnight we should know.

http://www.telegraph...day-3-live.html

And on that page, it seems one of the scientists (with tattoo's) has been made to feel ashamed over his choice of shirt.... bloody hell, we are talking of a once in a lifetime event and (some) viewers just moan

Comet probe scientist breaks down in tears during live broadcast following criticism for his ‘sexist’ shirt featuring scantily clad women

British scientist Dr Matt Taylor is the Rosetta Project Scientist

He appeared on TV with shirt covered in scantily clad cartoon women

Dr Taylor's shirt began trending on Twitter with #shirtgate and #shirtstorm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2834451/Philae-comet-probe-scientist-embroiled-sexism-row-shirt-featuring-scantily-clad-women.html#ixzz3J3diS1Hq

.

Edited November 14, 2014 by seeder

[TSS]

<p>

And on that page, it seems one of the scientists (with tattoo's) has been made to feel ashamed over his choice of shirt.... bloody hell, we are talking of a once in a lifetime event and (some) viewers just moan

.

What can you say - the pathetic brigade win again.

[seeder]

<p>What can you say - the pathetic brigade win again.

Thats the downside of twitter and similar...it gives a voice to all the idiots who feel like they are champions of a cause

I liked one of the comments from the DM article:

"If I had a doctorate from Imperial, and just landed a space thingy on a comet, Id wear what I damn well pleased

.

Edited November 14, 2014 by seeder

[GoldenRabbit]

And on that page, it seems one of the scientists (with tattoo's) has been made to feel ashamed over his choice of shirt.... bloody hell, we are talking of a once in a lifetime event and (some) viewers just moan

I must be getting old or something cause i don't find that shirt offensive.

It says here that hes the Rosetta Project scientist. He deserves to be happy, he deserves to wear any shirts he likes. Two thumbs up to you Matt thanks for being part of the project.

[TSS]

Thats the downside of twitter and similar...it gives a voice to all the idiots who feel like they are champions of a cause

I liked one of the comments from the DM article:

.

As someone else on there said "Storm in a D cup"...

It's good to offend people anyway - helps you work out which members of society have no life.

[Jacques Terreur]

"If I had a doctorate from Imperial, and just landed a space thingy on a comet, Id wear what I damn well pleased"

The guy you spoke about was Dr. Matt Taylor, right? I saw the whole event live, and shortly before the landing he was on for an interview.

When he was asked about his feelings now, so close to the goal, he simply said "i'm knackered...!"

Plus, he got himself a souvenir to celebrate the event:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03103/Tattoo_3103807b.jpg

Edited November 14, 2014 by Jacques Terreur

[Calibeliever]

in wishful thinking, these folks now go: "uhm, sorry...well, nevermind, we were wrong!"

But some people have real problems changing their opinions, even if they SHOULD know better or evidence jumps straight in their faces. There are folks aout there withsuch fixed mindsets that even strapping their a**es to a space probe would not convince them.

Shame that....

Quite. It's the difference between belief and knowledge. Intelligent people tend to go more in for knowledge since it can be easily altered by new facts. The thinking-impaired tend to stick with beliefs. They don't require any thought and are not subject to pesky things like facts.

[Merc14]

You'd think his wife would've said "Honey, you know you are going to be televised worldwide so maybe wear a proper shirt today or at least one without loads of breasts on it." LOL. Poor guy getting blasted by the PC brigade on his big day. Hopefully they find another target and leave him alone. I remeber as a young ensign in flight training down in Florida I was walking into the exchange (base store) with a T-Shirt that had a half naked mermaid coming out of the water on teh front with the words "May all your dreams be wet ones" printed underneath and they wouldn't let me in the store. I asked "Why?" and she said "Your shirt, its disgusting!" and I was confused so looked down, realized I had it on and just laughed, said sorry and walked away. I loved that shirt.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Merc14

[toast]

Hve just heard on the radio that "Phil" will be deactivated today due to lack of battery power and will

be set into sleep-mode for some month until 67P is clother to the sun so the solar cells can harvest

the required amount of energy for operation.

Sleep well, Phil!

[Merc14]

Hve just heard on the radio that "Phil" will be deactivated today due to lack of battery power and will

be set into sleep-mode for some month until 67P is clother to the sun so the solar cells can harvest

the required amount of energy for operation.

Sleep well, Phil!

Ahh well. I know they got a lot of data out of it before it succumbed but they generally allow their scientists to have exclusive access for at least 6 months before releasing to the genpub, so we may not know for awhile.

[toast]

As per German TV Phil has found organic substances on 67P. The TV reporter who was at the DLR in Cologne

stated that DLR scientists informed him about the findings. Official confirmation by the DLR pending.

I would say: Rock`n Roll now!

Edited November 14, 2014 by toast

[DONTEATUS]

Que song " Hang -On - Snoopy "

[+DieChecker]

Equal and opposite reaction physics says that, after I fling the lander into space, my pressure on the comet when I release the lander might also fling me into space. !

Unless it pressed you a half meter into the soft surface.

[Space Commander Travis]

And on that page, it seems one of the scientists (with tattoo's) has been made to feel ashamed over his choice of shirt.... bloody hell, we are talking of a once in a lifetime event and (some) viewers just moan

.

What d'you expect from (a) Twitter and ( b ) the daily Mail? Edited November 15, 2014 by Valdemar the Great

[Space Commander Travis]

They do it deliberately (dress like normal people, I mean) because the scientist look isn't so fashionable these days. Like them in charge of the Hadron collider, they all conscientiously dress down.

Edited November 15, 2014 by Valdemar the Great

[toast]

And on that page, it seems one of the scientists (with tattoo's) has been made to feel ashamed over his choice of shirt....

bloody hell, we are talking of a once in a lifetime event and (some) viewers just moan

Ppl who blamed him for the shirt are not aware of the fact that the dress code isn`t an indicator for the IQ level and/or

the level of knowledge and skills in general.

Based on my own 15+years experience within "business/management" circles I can judge very well that the level

of asininity is a least the tripple within such circles than outside these or within circles with ppl those are not dressed

with (cheap) suits and (cheap+plastic) "business"-shoes.

Here are 2 examples of ppl who are dressed in compliance to the business dress code:

[media=]

Edited November 15, 2014 by toast

[toast]

Our lander’s asleep

With its batteries depleted and not enough sunlight available to recharge, Philae has fallen into 'idle mode' for

a potentially long silence. In this mode, all instruments and most systems on board are shut down.

"Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence,"

says DLR's Stephan Ulamec, Lander Manager, who was in the Main Control Room at ESOC tonight.

Contact was lost at 00:36 UTC / 01:36 CET, not long before the scheduled communication loss that would have

happened anyway as Rosetta orbited below the horizon.

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/