Rosetta lands safely on comet

[ChrisGreaves]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/rosetta-mission-spacecraft-makes-historic-landing-on-comet-1.2832076

[StuartR]

And here is the very first image that it sent back...

[Claude]

Q: Why is it called Rosetta ?
A: Because of the Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799 in the Egypt town of Rashid (since we don't talk Arabic, we call it Rosetta), inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V.

So? I hear you say.

The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. It presents essentially the same text in all three scripts, it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Thus, just as the Rosetta discovery helped us understand hieroglyphs, it is hoped to gain some understanding of the origin of life on earth by examining that rock.

[Rudi]

Was it one of those Armadillos that filmed the landing incl. the "bounce"?

Great image Stuart.
Is the photographer one of your pen-pals forged from your extensive travels??

[Leif]

What I find amazing is that the voyage started 10 years ago, and allowing for a period of testing, they will have shipped technology that will be around twelve years old now.

[John Gray]

What we need in this universe is more Nostalgia...!

[HansV]

As you well know, nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

[StuartR]

...
Great image Stuart.
Is the photographer one of your pen-pals forged from your extensive travels??

That image is from the BBC of my childhood The Clangers

[John Gray]

As you well know, nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

Ba-boom. Tish!

[PJ_in_FL]

What I find amazing is that the voyage started 10 years ago, and allowing for a period of testing, they will have shipped technology that will be around twelve years old now.

Actually, the two MIMU's (Miniature Inertial Management Units) on Rosetta were built in 1999 by Honeywell in Clearwater, FL.

The mission was approved and funded in 1993, so the spacecraft itself contains tech mostly from the 80's and 90's, so it's not only a miracle it got where it was going but that it can do all those functions with computers about as smart as an IBM XT, with a 16-bit microprocessor running at 1.7MHz.

Truly a marvelous piece of engineering to go with an incredible accomplishment!

Oh, I wanted to add that some reference material on the lander is located HERE.

(edit: added link to additional information)

[Jay Freedman]

The news reports describe the Philae lander as "about the size of a refrigerator". I think this is the latest photo of it:

[Rudi]

A selfie....and a good one at that!

This must be the first comet picnic EVER! Pity it had to picnic alone

[Timelord]

Some great photos.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014 ... share&_r=2

[Rudi]

Thanks....
Nice images and very interesting orbital graphics too...

[Claude]

Don't they have colour that far away ?

[Rudi]

It IS in colour...

Space is a pretty bleak place

[ChrisGreaves]

What I find amazing....

Also that the comet is in size about 4x3x2 miles, say, 24 cubic miles, and it is 317 million miles away, so that would be like (loads Excel) ...

Untitled.png

... using a grain of sand to hit a frozen pea at a distance of 317 Kilometres.

[ChrisGreaves]

Some great photos.

Timelord, thanks for the link to the GREAT images and captions!

[ChrisGreaves]

... the spacecraft itself contains tech mostly from the 80's and 90's, ...

So there's still hope of a comeback for punched cards? :hope:

[Rudi]

... using a grain of sand to hit a frozen pea at a distance of 317 Kilometres.

I'd say that would be a grain of a grain of a grain of sand to hit a frozen avocado pip at a distance of 317.01 km