Philae Probe lands on comet Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sorry for the late reply: I really wanted to write a good post about this, but it seems I can't find the time right now. So forgive me if I'll give only a short answer.

To me, the highlight of the mission is that a soft landing can be done at all with our current technology. The technical difficulties are mind-blowing, considering that the comet has hardly any gravity at all to guide the descent, that Rosetta has to continuously adjust its orbits to stay in close proximity of the comet, and that we are basically working blindfolded considering the huge time delay. If it can be done, it can be repeated, and I think a lot of brains are at work in this moment to apply what we learned this time to a whole new bunch of space missions towards comets (and asteroids).

As for the science, I'm obviously very interested if the can find organic molecules on the surface of the comet, but the most intriguing part is if we can find any clue on why almost all ammino acids on Earth posses a specific chirality instead of being 50% "right-handed" and 50% "left-handed". That's one of the big, big questions in abiogenesis study.

I'm reading a lot of stuff right now (I have to do a public presentation about this topic in a couple of weeks), so maybe I'll pick up some interesting stuff along the way and add something here.

 

CNN is reporting that Philae may spring back to life next year based on several lucky mishaps.

 

Philae strikes back! When it repowers, it will gain sentience and maneuver the comet to impact the Earth in a bid to return home. Cue Michael Bay.

Rosetta is truly an achievement, and one that the ESA is IMO mishandling in terms of presentation. Yes, science leads, as it should; but if they want to garner interest in their space program, they could really present the findings with a better appeal to the younger generations. The Americans put a big media spin on things - getting Mars landers down and instantly moving to get those first pictures while the dust is still settling.

I think it of vital importance to get stuff like this into the mainstream consciousness and the ESA could really Hollywood their efforts a bit more (loud shirts nonwithstanding). If not, Rosetta / Philae will head to the history books that much quicker. IMO, of course.

Mark

 

Not to mention that I find the fact that the comet appears to be sending out it's own signal to be very interesting.

 

If you've followed ESA's social media efforts, they were almost overdoing it.

 

Yeah, was going to mention it but I forgot.

They made a fucking science-fiction short movie to explain the mission.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08tGjXNHO4[/yt]

Not to mention the multi-episode cartoons, and the tweets between Rosetta, Philae, and the ESA headquarters...

All consiered, I think they made a very good job advertising this mission to the public.

 

Rosetta's triangular orbit about comet 67P.

 

https://twitter.com/landru79/status/988490703075463168