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Philae lander makes historic

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Ian Sample and Stuart Clarkin Darmstadt

The Guardian, Thursday 13 November 2014

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The European Space Agency mission control in Darmstadt, Germany,

celebrates as Philae touches down

The signal broke a seven-hour wait of agonising

intensity and sparked scenes of jubilation at the

European Space Agencys mission control in

Darmstadt. The team in charge of the Rosetta mission

achieved what at times seemed an impossible task by

landing a robotic spacecraft on a comet for the first time

in history.

The moment the tension broke came shortly after 1600

GMT when the Philae called home. We are there. We

are sitting on the surface. Philae is talking to us, said a

jubilant Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the

0:53

ScienceRosetta space probeEuropean SpaceAgency CometsSpace Astronomy

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Rosetta cometlanding live blogThe Rosettaspacecraft ismaking its historicbid to land on acomet using thePhilae lander.Stuart Clarkis atthe EuropeanSpace Agency'smission control in

Darmstadt tobring you thenews as ithappens

Rosetta missionlands Philaeprobe on 67P

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DLR German space centre. We are on the comet.

Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations

director, added: We cannot be happier than we are

now.

But celebrations were tempered by the later discovery

that the probes two harpoons had not fired to fasten

the craft down in the ultra-low gravity. Scientists now

think the probe may have bounced after first cominginto contact with the surface. Ulamec said: Maybe

today we didnt just land once, we landed twice.

The safe, if precarious, touchdown of the lander gives

scientists a unique chance to ride onboard a comet and

study from the surface what happens as its activity

ramps up as it gets closer to the sun. The first images

beamed back from the landers descent revealed a

dramatic landscape of pits and precipices, craters and

boulders. However, there have been gaps in its radio

link with the orbiting Rosetta mothership.

The Philae lander on its way to the comet, photographed by the Rosetta

spacecraft. Photograph: AP

The 1bn ($1.58bn) Rosetta mission aims to unlock the

mysteries of comets, made from ancient material that

predates the birth of the solar system. In the data

Rosetta and Philae collect, researchers hope to learn

more of how the solar system formed and how comets

carried water and complex organics to the planets,

preparing the stage for life on Earth.

Space agencies have sent probes to comets before,

but not like this. In 1986, Nasas Ice mission flew

through the tail of Halleys comet. In 2005, the agencys

Deep Impact spacecraft fired a massive copper block at

comet Temple 1. But none before now has landed.

The feat marks a profound success for the European

Space Agency (ESA), which launched the Rosetta

spacecraft more than 10 years ago from its Kourou

spaceport in French Guiana. Since blasting off in March

2004, Rosetta and its lander Philae have travelled more

than 6bn kilometres to catch up with the comet, which

orbits the sun at speeds up to 135,000km/h.

We are the first to do this, and that will stay forever,

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The comet 67P isa relic from thesolar system'sbirth: studying itwill illuminate theorigins of life and help avoidfuture collisions

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said Jean Jacques Dordain, director general of the

ESA.

Matt Taylor, a Rosetta project scientist, who had

selected an extremely colourful shirt for the event,

revealed an impressive and brave tattoo of the

lander on the comets surface.

#Rosettascientist @mggtTayloris soconfident @philae2014's going to make it

that he's had it inked! #CometLanding

pic.twitter.com/WWE9MkzfNY

BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast)

November 12, 2014

Comets are the original source of Earths water. That

wee lander is now in position, poised to re-write what

we know about ourselves, tweeted Chris Hadfield, the

former Canadian astronaut and commander of theInternational Space Station.

Early data from the lander revealed that it had had a

softer landing on comet 67P than expected. But an

hour after the landing signal came through, Paolo Ferri,

the ESAs head of mission operations, said that

Philaes twin harpoons, which are intended to secure it

in place, had not fired, raising fears about the landers

stability and chances of clinging on to the comet for

long.

Touchdown for the lander played out 510m kilometres

from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, on

a comet hurtling through space at more than 18km/s. At

so vast a distance, even radio signals travelling at thespeed of light take nearly half an hour to travel from

Earth to the spacecraft, making real-time control of the

landing impossible. Instead, the entire descent was

precalculated, uploaded and run automatically.

Landing Philae on the comets surface was never going

to be easy. When ESA managers got their first closeup

of the comet in July, its unusual rubber duck shapeleft

some fearing that a safe touchdown was impossible.

The shape was not the only problem. The comets

surface was hostile: hills and spectacular jutting cliffsgave way to cratered plains strewn with boulders. If

Philae landed on anything other than even ground it

could topple over, leaving it stranded and defunct.

Rosetta spent weeks flying around the comet to create

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

4/19

a surface map from which mission controllers could

choose a landing site. They faced a trade-off: the site

had to be fairly flat and clear of boulders, but with a

good view of the whole comet and plenty of sunlight to

charge the landers batteries. From a shortlist of five

potential landing spots, scientists and engineers

unanimously voted for a 1 sq km region on the comets

head later named Agilkia.

Scientists celebrate at the space centre in Toulouse as they learn that

Philae has landed. Photograph: Remy Gabalda/AFP/Getty Images

At the start of the mission, ESA officials had assumed

the comet would be potato shaped and rated their

chances of a successful landing at 75%. After seeing

the shape and terrain of their target close up, those

odds fell to around 50%, but climbed again as technical

staff learned more about the landing site.

The confidence did not last long though. On Tuesday

night, hours before Philae had left its mothership, the

chances of a safe landing took another dip. Overnight,

a thruster on the lander failed to respondto commands

sent from Earth. Engineers tried for hours to correct the

fault but to no avail. The malfunction threatened to

abort the mission, but at 0235 GMT on Wednesday

mission controllers decided to go ahead with the

landing regardless.

The nitrogen thruster, facing upwards from the top of

the lander, was designed to fire for 60 seconds as

Philae touched down to prevent it from bouncing off the

comets surface where the gravitational pull is several

hundred thousand times weaker than on Earth.

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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Philaes shot of its mothership shortly after separation. Photograph:

ESA/Handout/ESA/Handout/Corbis

For the mission team, the seven-hour descent, during

which Philae fell at walking speed towards the comets

surface, was a nail-biting experience. The lander

separated from its mothership at 0835 GMT with

confirmation received on Earth at 0903. For the early

part of the 20km descent, Philae was expected to be

out of contact with Rosetta. Around 1100 GMT themothership reacquired a signal from the lander, which

duly unfurled its legs and began to take pictures. The

first image taken just 50 seconds after separation

revealed a look back at the mothership, one of its 14-

metre-long solar arrays clearly visible, as Philae fell

silently to its destination.

One hour from touchdown, Philae was on the right

course. Ulamec of the DLR German space centre said

everything looked fantastic. Telemetry from the lander

showed that it was rotating, but not enough to causeproblems.

Scientists in Toulouse look at the first picture transmitted by Philae.

Photograph: Remy Gabalda/AFP/Getty Images

From its orbit around the comet, the Rosetta probe will

take more high-resolution images and gather

information on the bodys density, temperature and

chemical makeup. It will also capture dust and gas

released in ever more violent jets from the comets

nucleus as it nears the sun.

From its vantage point on the surface, the lander can

drill down 20cm and collect samples of subsurface

material for on-the-spot testing. On board Philae are 10

instruments, including one from the Open University

named Ptolemy which will bake pieces of comet

material and analyse the gases given off to build up a

picture of the comets composition. Another instrument,

the Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by

Radiowave Transmission (Consert), will reveal the

comets internal structure by passing radio wavesthrough the icy body to Rosetta on the other side.

.@ESA_RosettaSee for yourself! ROLIS

imaged #67Pwhen we were just 3km away!

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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1421 comments. Showing 50 conversations, threads collapsed , sorted oldest first

1 23 11

All comments Staff replies Guardian picks

Glad I can share. #CometLanding

pic.twitter.com/b6mcid2fsn

Philae Lander (@Philae2014) November

12, 2014

The Rosetta mission is planned to run until December

2015, but if enough fuel remains in the spacecrafts

tanks, mission controllers may extend its life by sixmonths and give the mothership more high-risk tasks,

such as flying through one of the gas and dust jets

streaming from the comet. Philae has initial battery

power to last 40 hours but will then switch to

rechargeable ones replenished by sunlight.

The lander could continue working until March next

year, when the electronics will become too warm to

work properly. Even when Philae packs up, it may still

cling on to the comet, perhaps for several 6.45-year-

long laps around the sun, before enough materialerodes from the comets surface for the lander to lose

its grip.

Celebrations at the European Space Agencys mission control in

Darmstadt. Photograph: Arne Dedert/Arne Dedert/DPA/Corbis

Share

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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23 PEOPLE, 25 COMMENTS

Show 22 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 4:29am

thomasewell

Neat

12 November 2014 4:10pm

217

Buckster69 thomasewell

Headlines tomorrow "Leaders of Earth slapped with Zargian Parking Ticket"

12 November 2014 4:18pm

374

GlobalInsight Buckster69

Or "Russian Flag Found On Comet"

12 November 2014 4:24pm

183

DrCJ Buckster69

12 November 2014 4:30pm

52

13 PEOPLE, 16 COMMENTS

Show 13 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 6:26am

Pinchas Hodadad

Armageddon 2014 baby!"I don't want to miss a thing'

12 November 2014 4:10pm

65

VeritasVosLiberabit Pinchas Hodadad

Comet - Rosetta has Landed

Well done all - a true international effort .... btw ....

"The 1bn mission, named after the Rosetta stone which enabled scholarsto decipher the language of ancient Egypt, aims to unlock the mysteries ofcomets made from material predating the birth of the solar system"

Can UK offset part of its 1.7billion EU claw back as R&D investment?

12 November 2014 4:44pm

25

hogsback VeritasVosLiberabit

Nothing to do with the EU.

12 November 2014 5:23pm

48

pitlad hogsback

12 November 2014 5:48pm

61

12 PEOPLE, 12 COMMENTS

Sam John Mercer

Amazing!!!!! !!

12 November 2014 4:10pm

303

Buckster69 Sam John Mercer

Amazon, Ebay, Google cheer as EU / ESA set up new 'moving' tax haven.

12 November 2014 4:22pm

180

BillGoatse Sam John Mercer

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our

12 November 2014 4:25pm

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Show 9 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 3:19am

community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see ourFAQs.

savetheworld1uk Sam John Mercer

12 November 2014 7:17pm

4

9 PEOPLE, 9 COMMENTS

Show 6 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 4:16am

Robert Lempriere

Fantastic news, an achievement decades in the making, congratulations to allinvolved, looking forward to learning what secrets the comet holds

12 November 2014 4:11pm

628

dollishillbilly Robert Lempriere

Hear, hear.

12 November 2014 4:59pm

33

Insatiableplunderer Robert Lempriere

Absolutely. Now just drill down to the c enter, make sure everyt hing is wiredup correctly, and blow that mutha apart!

12 November 2014 5:06pm

39

EZYGEZA Robert Lempriere

12 November 2014 5:18pm

20

17 PEOPLE, 17 COMMENTS

Show 14 more replies Last reply: 12 November 2014 11:55pm

ChineseDazza

Who took that photo?

12 November 2014 4:11pm

19

Tystnaden ChineseDazza

The Rosetta probe.

12 November 2014 4:13pm

57

DidntIjustsaythat ChineseDazza

Elvis

12 November 2014 4:14pm

190

pokarekareana ChineseDazza

12 November 2014 4:18pm

8

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

earhdags

Yes lads!

12 November 2014 4:12pm

15

aarthoor earhdags

One for Laura Bates....

12 November 2014 5:34pm

6

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11 PEOPLE, 14 COMMENTS

Show 11 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 5:43am

Olly

Wow! Just Wow!

12 November 2014 4:12pm

103

kniotheone Olly

Indeed.

And y et, these very people congratulating this achievement seem to thinkthe Indian mission to Mars is somehow not worth congratulating, becausethere are still some toilets to be built.

A heady mix of stupidity and hypocrisy , how can one not like that!

12 November 2014 7:33pm

29

antonyJ Olly

A sensational ac hievement f or the ages. Two words t hat get over-used trulyapply here Amazing, unbelievable.+ a very sexy way to bust out a billion.

However - and so CIF crucify me - whats the point? What can we learn and

how can that actually help us? How does learning more about the origins ofthe universe help our future?

12 November 2014 8:23pm

7

antonyJ antonyJ

12 November 2014 8:34pm

21

3 PEOPLE, 3 COMMENTS

Dickdong

Way hey! Surfin' 67P Somebody write a song!

12 November 2014 4:12pm

15

dothemaths Dickdong

Just climb onto facebook at ESA site and listen to it. Vangelis "Rosetta'sWaltz."

12 November 2014 4:45pm

15

Clayton Brooks dothemaths

nice, thanks for pointing this out.

12 November 2014 6:07pm

3

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

SonOfTheDesert

Blimey. I can't really believe it worked. Well done all!

12 November 2014 4:12pm

185

cernabbas SonOfTheDesert

So did I, though one does get the feeling that we are the aliens...

12 November 2014 10:13pm

11

3 PEOPLE, 3 COMMENTS

Electro Knight

Well done all!

12 November 2014 4:12pm

38

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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Gelion Electro Knight

Thanks!! We just commented on this blog, it wasn't hard!

... Oh you meant the Rosetta scientists :-(

12 November 2014 4:55pm

56

HassleHoff Gelion

He meant Bill Haley and the comets.

12 November 2014 11:57pm

2

26 PEOPLE, 28 COMMENTS

Show 25 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 5:49am

garsidepotter

Cameron - this is what European cooperation looks like. And all in English.

12 November 2014 4:12pm

546

vastariner garsidepotter

Indeed. No need for a ginormous bureaucracy or moving every few monthsto Strasbourg or whatever. But that's what happens when the scientistsrather than politicos get involved.

12 November 2014 4:18pm

128

Strummered vastariner

Careful, he might take credit for this too.

12 November 2014 4:22pm

81

Timotteo garsidepotter

12 November 2014 4:24pm

31

7 PEOPLE, 9 COMMENTS

Show 6 more replies Last reply: 12 November 2014 7:18pm

ID3147353

Congratulations a magnificent scientific achievement.

12 November 2014 4:13pm

116

alkopop79 ID3147353

As well as engineering achievement.

12 November 2014 4:20pm

110

MsDimple alkopop79

Howard? Is that you???

12 November 2014 4:23pm

77

scipio16 alkopop79

12 November 2014 4:25pm

3

Iskra1903

Massive congratulations to the Rosetta team! An extraordinary achievement, and Ican't wait for the results of the science to follow.

12 November 2014 4:13pm

83

8 PEOPLE, 8 COMMENTS

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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Show 5 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 5:22am

Ernekid

Hooray for science!

I wonder if there's any locals on the Comet, I wonder what they're thinking

"Mavis! Come look! a bloody great big robot just landed in the garden!"

12 November 2014 4:13pm

77

RoomSixteen Ernekid

I wonder if there's any locals on the Comet, I wonder what they'rethinking.

If they're anything like us, they'd be thinking retaliation strike.

12 November 2014 4:23pm

28

SonOfTheDesert Ernekid

The Comet Independence Party has started campaigning furiously at thewaves of robots taking all the comet's jobs and women.

12 November 2014 4:30pm

97

UncleSatan Ernekid

' '

12 November 2014 5:22pm

28

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

kels1417

Well done!!

12 November 2014 4:13pm

15

vonZeppelin kels1417

Will be when it passes the Sun.

12 November 2014 10:08pm

11

7 PEOPLE, 7 COMMENTS

Show 4 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 2:37am

WillWork4Work

It's an ugly planet, a bug planet.

12 November 2014 4:13pm

82

ElmerPhudd WillWork4Work

'Snot a planet

12 November 2014 4:28pm

16

nameIess WillWork4Work

Do you want to know more!?!

12 November 2014 4:32pm

54

Notmetheotherguy WillWork4Work

12 November 2014 5:03pm

19

5 PEOPLE, 6 COMMENTS

stripedone

Just unbelievable. Utterly fantastic piece of science!

12 November 2014 4:13pm

75

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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Show 3 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 1:31am

tomaso81 stripedone

Absolutely stunning f eat. Well done.

12 November 2014 10:30pm

2

4danglier stripedone

Put these people in charge of the economy and they'll have it fixed in 6months.

12 November 2014 11:05pm

5

Gegenbeispiel 4danglier

'

13 November 2014 1:10am

8

chameleon

Extraordinary!

12 November 2014 4:14pm

27

xylophonetermite

Nice one.

12 November 2014 4:14pm

11

9 PEOPLE, 13 COMMENTS

Show 10 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 4:37am

pindoctor

Bloody marvellous! I just hope we can start doing this well with some crewedmissions.

12 November 2014 4:14pm

7

xylophonetermite pindoctor

There's a reason why they sent a machine instead of a human.

12 November 2014 4:18pm

23

CeilingCat xylophonetermite

There's a reason why they sent a machine instead of a human.

Bruce Willis was busy?

12 November 2014 4:36pm

63

xylophonetermite CeilingCat

'

12 November 2014 4:43pm

9

3 PEOPLE, 3 COMMENTS

Adrian Chamberlin

Excellent news. :-D

12 November 2014 4:14pm

15

ID0126833 Adrian Chamberlin

Another waste of money on a paid hobbies.

13 November 2014 2:17am

Troy Foley ID0126833 2

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

13/19

I'm sure if you wanted to get your 3.50 Euro back it wouldn't be difficult.

13 November 2014 3:14am

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

Thomas Metzger

Wooohoo science be praised congratulations to the team and everyone involved. Amomentous and extrodinary accomplishment for the entire human race!

12 November 2014 4:14pm

39

mahavati Thomas Metzger

Hear, hear! Science and engineering have been given a massive boost byRosetta and Tony Stark.

12 November 2014 4:55pm

7

29 PEOPLE, 31 COMMENTS

Show 28 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 4:42am

danielrendall

Still at least 2bn people on Earth without access to a working toilet.

12 November 2014 4:15pm

23

farabundovive danielrendall

There's nothing wrong with a composting latrine.

12 November 2014 4:17pm

65

roghitch danielrendall

miserable git.

12 November 2014 4:17pm

263

houses danielrendall

'

12 November 2014 4:17pm

158

Jamie Risner

incredible!

12 November 2014 4:15pm

13

7 PEOPLE, 8 COMMENTS

thosewhotell

when you think of the amazingly stupid things we are capable of, it almost defiesbelief that we can do something like this

12 November 2014 4:15pm

183

Luminaire thosewhotell

haha yeah, for a species that still has trouble not biting its own tongueoccasionally this is pretty good.

12 November 2014 4:23pm

38

timecop thosewhotell

Years ago at a meeting of quite a number of agencies to discuss thefeasibility of the Star Wars program, a politician in the midst of it flatlystated, "You simply can't hit a bullet with a bullet," to which an Armyengineer responded, "Of course you can."

It was beyond the grasp of the elected official, but to the engineer it wasjust another fairly complex math problem to solve. Today people barely lookup when a news program shows one missile intercepting another, but it all

12 November 2014 4:37pm

34

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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Show 5 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 5:32am

started with somebody that knew for certain that it could be done.

Star Wars started when many were still carrying slide rules. One can onlyimagine what our computer age geeks are capable of inventing.

Leoriox thosewhotell

12 November 2014 4:58pm

30

8 PEOPLE, 9 COMMENTS

Show 6 more replies Last reply: 12 November 2014 7:48pm

NikTheGreek

Great for Europe! Take that Kippers!

12 November 2014 4:15pm

167

ID2206832 NikTheGreek

Norway and Switzerland are in the European Space Agency. They are not inthe EU.

12 November 2014 4:49pm

30

mahavati NikTheGreek

Kippers love Europe. They just can't stand Juncker et al.

12 November 2014 5:00pm

10

Maravi NikTheGreek

12 November 2014 5:19pm

4

3 PEOPLE, 3 COMMENTS

farabundovive

Brilliant! Well done, ESA. Now let's just hope there's something worth discovering!

12 November 2014 4:15pm

15

ElmerPhudd farabundovive

Now let's just hope there's something worth discovering!

Where do you want to start?They have learned loads just by sending Rosetta out there.The lander managed to work.Plus the usual evaluation sheet :

Next we wait for a while, soon (if we're lucky) the big work begins andpeople will forget about Rosetta while data is being collected, analysed andargued over.There's years of work to do.

12 November 2014 4:34pm

12

LossinLips farabundovive

There will be, no doubt.

12 November 2014 4:46pm

4

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

vastariner

Wow. Like throwing a 180 from 15 miles away blindfold. And, given the lack of thenitrogen exhausts, throwing with your feet.

Chapeau.

12 November 2014 4:15pm

52

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SonOfTheDesert vastariner

And y ou have to run around for ten y ears before you even get to find outwhat the dartboard looks like. Turns out it looks very different, and far morecomplicated, than you'd expected.

12 November 2014 4:33pm

31

giaspa251

Yee ha philae!!!

12 November 2014 4:15pm

10

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

neilwilson

This is what people can do when they pull together.

Fantastic.

12 November 2014 4:16pm

63

Benjamin Rood neilwilson

And als o when research isn't tethered to some narrow, profit-dependant orviolent tool of death related outcome.

12 November 2014 5:44pm

32

12 PEOPLE, 12 COMMENTS

Show 9 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 3:34am

philipf

And t o t hink some people would prefer to waste t his money on building decenthomes or financing the health service! Come on you killjoys! Don't you realise thisholds out a future in which more resources are available to the rich!

12 November 2014 4:16pm

11

Jason Sawford philipf

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by ourcommunity standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see ourFAQs.

12 November 2014 4:18pm

Jaydee23 philipf

And how would you go about inspiring the next generation of scientis ts?

12 November 2014 4:20pm

60

sadoldpedant philipf

12 November 2014 4:24pm

82

4 PEOPLE, 4 COMMENTS

Jorge Mockaitis

AWESOME !

12 November 2014 4:16pm

11

xylophonetermite Jorge Mockaitis

Everything is.

12 November 2014 4:20pm

7

loopine Jorge Mockaitis

Literally

12 November 2014 4:42pm

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simonsaint Jorge Mockaitis

Golly!

12 November 2014 7:24pm

8 PEOPLE, 8 COMMENTS

Show 5 more replies Last reply: 12 November 2014 9:47pm

usasoneiaswe

Fuck, we've done it! Landed. Wow. And Farage and his ilk would have us removedfrom such expression of what we are: Adventurers! Well done Europe!

Fuck the dividers, look what WE DO united. x

12 November 2014 4:16pm

190

ID2206832 usasoneiaswe

We could still be part of the ESA without being in the EU. Two of themembers are not in the EU.

12 November 2014 4:52pm

31

Paidenoughalready usasoneiaswe

I think its a fantastic achievement but you idiots that think that it wouldn'thave happened if the UK had left the EU, really are clueless.

There are more than enough countries in the UK to do everything, withoutthe UK.

And no, I wouldn't v ote f or UKIP if you paid me.

12 November 2014 4:52pm

10

pitlad ID2206832

12 November 2014 5:37pm

5

HairyKellogg

Bloody space bastards made it!

12 November 2014 4:17pm

12

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

Spaldy

Yay science.

12 November 2014 4:17pm

31

JacksSR Spaldy

Considering your avatar, shouldn't that be: Yeah! Science Bitch!

12 November 2014 6:25pm

10

2 PEOPLE, 3 COMMENTS

TheKevster

Historic day, awe-inspiring achievement, and potentially of incalculable scientificvalue. Congratulations to ESA and everyone involved.

I have been glued to the BBC News all afternoon and now i can feel the old tearswelling up. Just sensational. It's been a terrible year, 2014, but this shows what wecan do when we work together.

12 November 2014 4:17pm

87

snowybeach TheKevster

Me too, I seem to have something in my eye...

12 November 2014 5:04pm

7

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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TheKevster snowybeach

I tell you what else is interesting. People used to watch comets in the skyand think them portents of doom. Now we've just landed on one. That'sprogress.

12 November 2014 5:22pm

23

7 PEOPLE, 9 COMMENTS

Show 6 more replies Last reply: 12 November 2014 7:59pm

MichaelofNorwich

For those of us in our forties, that picture doesn't half remind me of the Liberatorfrom Blake's 7. Watch out for clouds of fluid particles, chaps.

12 November 2014 4:17pm

19

xylophonetermite MichaelofNorwich

Ding dong! Avon calling.

12 November 2014 4:19pm

11

Freeport MichaelofNorwich

Watch out for Servalan.

12 November 2014 4:19pm

14

ElmerPhudd Freeport

'

12 November 2014 4:37pm

6

Freeport

Well done ESA.

12 November 2014 4:18pm

31

MarkDJ

Wonderful stuff us humans are capable of when we work together.

12 November 2014 4:18pm

24

Briantist

One of those proud to be a European moments! Great stuff, I love it when a plancomes together!

12 November 2014 4:18pm

85

Rabiesx15

Amazing result never thought it would get down through all that

12 November 2014 4:18pm

10

TurangaLeela

Wonderful achievement. Sometimes, humans can be awesome. Go science!

12 November 2014 4:18pm

31

6 PEOPLE, 6 COMMENTS

MrRickus

Pretty fascinating. Would love if it we could watch a live stream of a camera onRosetta whizzing about the place.

12 November 2014 4:19pm

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8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

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Show 3 more replies Last reply: 13 November 2014 12:36am

nyxpersephone MrRickus

This is, unfortunately, not possible as the lander's (Philae) power capacityis very limited (circa 32 watts, according to Wikipedia):Philae is really small, just about the size of a fridge and weighsapproximately 100 kgs.

Any signal s ent from Philae will be relayed by the orbiting motherspacecraft, Rosetta, as Philae's antennae are simply not powerful enoughto transmit any signal directly to earth.

As for t he liv estream, that won't be poss ible as the signal s ent f rom Rosettawould take something like half an hour or even longer to reach the groundstations on planet earth.

12 November 2014 5:18pm

8

hamatik nyxpersephone

Can we send an engineer out to upgrade the hardware please?

12 November 2014 5:30pm

7

TerryHFS nyxpersephone

12 November 2014 8:02pm

2

FoolsDream

Awesome s uccess . Congratulations to those amazing, dedicated pioneers workinghard to answer the great questions of our time. Awe inspiring.

12 November 2014 4:19pm

17

Strummered

What a magnificent achievement by all involved at the ESA. Bravo.

12 November 2014 4:19pm

18

ID7475021

It's wonderful news! Many things we do make me ashamed of our species, but thisis amazing, and shows us at our best: co-operating, exploring and learning.

And t o t he moaners who say it's a waste of money, it's chicken-feed next to thecolossal amounts that get spent on war, death, destruction and other horrors.

12 November 2014 4:20pm

86

3 PEOPLE, 4 COMMENTS

Luminaire

Can you please leave Ben Affleck up there this time?

12 November 2014 4:20pm

15

DanielBurden Luminaire

He'd finds a way back. He's Batman.

12 November 2014 4:26pm

10

fritzlange Luminaire

It's a tough choice though then we get Bruce Willis sent back

12 November 2014 4:36pm

5

Luminaire DanielBurden

He's not the hero the asteroid needs right now....

12 November 2014 5:18pm

8/10/2019 Philae lander makes historic touchdown on comet _ Science _ The Guardian.pdf

19/19

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1 23 11

youssou

I am so bloody impressed!

12 November 2014 4:20pm

19

2 PEOPLE, 2 COMMENTS

neilwilson

OH: "Those hours spent playing lunar lander came in handy then".

12 November 2014 4:20pm

30

PeaAitch neilwilson

Memories, memories...

12 November 2014 4:37pm

5

jay123

wow

12 November 2014 4:20pm

15

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