Rosetta - Philae landing on Comet 67P

I agree that it was an awesome achievement and an exciting event with some excellent science data already collected but may I remind you that it is a machine and not an animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite right, Philae would be most upset if anyone called him an animal! There there philae, pleasant dreams now.

..may I remind you that it is a machine and not an animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You might enjoy this article in the Guardian today:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/14/rosetta-philae-space-comet-outer-limits-human-excellence

Beautifully written, it conveys why it's human instinct to anthropomorphise. The article goes on to speak about how this epic Rosetta and Philae tale offers a form of escapism. War and conflict headline the news so frequently and it's been great to see humanity united in wanting this mission to be a success.

A great collaboration for Europe scientifically but also for us civilians, watching on. This very thread on our forum is testament to this!  As Tej mentioned,

It was great sharing the thrills and emotions with all of you!

This mission brought members in our society together. We shared Philae's journey and what a journey it was!

PHILAE!!!! Come back - you can make it!

You might enjoy this article in the Guardian today

What a superb piece of writing by Jonathan Freedland... thanks for sharing it Christina.

Very touching that he included reference to the Challenger disaster... I remember that as if it was yesterday. I was studying for my A-levels at the time, and had just got home from school to see the disaster unfold on TV. I saw Reagan's "touch the face of God" speech the next day... I'd never had much time for Reagan prior to that, lazily thinking of him as a bumbling fool, as he was often portrayed in the press... but that was one of the most emotional speeches I'd ever heard, and forever changed my opinion of the man. Watching it again via the link in the article really brought a tear to the eye.

it’s human instinct to anthropomorphise

That's for sure! One of my old cars definitely had a personality of its own 😉

This mission brought members in our society together. We shared Philae’s journey and what a journey it was!

Couldn't have put it better. Well said.

I agree a well written article and yes it was great to have some good news about cooperation, very much reflected in the esa tv broadcasts, and yes it was really good to share the experience with members of the society. It was still a machine. I celebrated the achievement, ingenuity, scientific knowledge determination and imagination of human kind.

I remember the Reagan speech, his speech writer should be congratulated and give him credit as a reasonable actor to deliver the lines but as a president he was a disaster.

I seem to have united you all in your love for Philae I will concede the field to you.

may I remind you that it is a machine and not an animal!

Good ol' Philae! Striking a blow for science, for engineering, and for anthropomorphism!

Meanwhile, spare a thought for poor Rosetta, now left all alone with no fellow space probe to talk to. And as for Curiosity Rover, gamely carrying on exploring Mars, utterly ignored,...

Meanwhile, spare a thought for poor Rosetta, now left all alone with no fellow space probe to talk to. And as for Curiosity Rover, gamely carrying on exploring Mars, utterly ignored,…

Rosetta and Philae tweeting was the cutest relationship of them all. Someone pass Brian the vomit bucket

But it not just Curiosity, even older greats still spooling out science data, Opportunity, Cassini and the great grandparents of them all, Voyager 1 and 2! And many other lower profile heroic machines 🙂

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Not a vomit bucket but a gun to the temple and   BANG  !!!!!!!!!!!

Some fascinating tweets from the MUPUS team this evening.

It seems that the hammer encountered a really hard surface after going through an initial ash-like covering. They increased the power to beyond the maximum setting and still made no progress, before the hammer apparently failed.

They are saying that his means that the surface is harder than 2MPa... that's close to concrete stength, as far as I know. That's extraordinary if true. Given that the overall density of the comet is known to be very low, that might suggest that the comet is porous? Don't know.

I suppose another possibility is that the material could be particularly dense in this area, perhaps due to an impact crater.

Hour-long Sky at Night special tonight. BBC4 @ 21.00. I wonder how it will compare to the information content of the running commentary we've had on the Flamsteed forum over the last few days!

Hour-long Sky at Night special tonight. BBC4 @ 21.00. I wonder how it will compare to the information content of the running commentary we’ve had on the Flamsteed forum over the last few days!

Looking forwards to seeing that.

There is also a nice preliminary write up by Chris on the whole whirlwind public relation experience of the Philae saga.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30069244

Hour-long Sky at Night special tonight

Excellent... they haven't had long to produce that! Can't remember the last hour-long special...

I have to say they recreated the thrill of the original landing and the programme has been excellent.  Both Chris and Maggie have been really illuminating and enthusiastic about the mission.  More Sky at Nights like this please.

I have to say they recreated the thrill of the original landing and the programme has been excellent. Both Chris and Maggie have been really illuminating and enthusiastic about the mission. More Sky at Nights like this please.

Totally agree. Really enjoyed the insiders' behind the scenes action, tension and jubilations from the sky at night duo presenters' perspective. The program was also very well structured interspersing the narrative of the Philae landing saga with informative segments on the science experiments on board, interviews and the origins of life theories.

Sky at Night has been very tremendously engaging and superbly produced this season, anyway, striking the perfect balance of presenting content in a dynamic structure appealing to a wide audience and I am sure informative enough to the more hungrier amatuer astornomers 🙂

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30083969