Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

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caprarom
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by caprarom »

Nice update/summary, Evelyn. Thank you. Mike
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

Some of the latest:

The current communication issue.
Meanwhile, 'massive sinkholes' found.

And regarding those recent claims of evidence for ‘life’ on Philae, see no-alien-life, and no, the Philae probe has not discovered life on comet 67p.

By the way Chandra Wickramasinghe, responsible for the idea that micro-organisms were somehow involved, was a colleague of Fred Hoyle, who was first to explain the details of stellar/supernova nucleosynthesis (though for various reasons was passed over for the Nobel Prize). Together they later researched and promulgated the often ridiculed PanspermiaTheory. FH has now died, but CW is clearly intent on sticking with it, and who knows could still be proved right after all.

Actually it was Hoyle who first coined the term ‘Big Bang’, though in a cynical way, preferring instead the Steady State Theory. And he wasn’t a bad science fiction writer too; see The Black Cloud (1957, still available on Amazon), featuring a sentient interstellar gas cloud.
Such a cloud would surely also carry a load of intelligent ISD particles that would winkle their way into cunning hiding places in the Stardust aerogel, hence our evident trouble finding them!

John
Last edited by jsmaje on Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
caprarom
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by caprarom »

Thanks for the update and background info, John. Interesting. Good job gatekeeping. Much appreciated. Mike
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

Rosetta acknowledged NASA's achievement by snapping Pluto (from a distance of five billion kilometres) on the very day - 14th July - of the 'New Horizons' probe's close flypast: Hello Pluto.

Meanwhile, Philae-Rosetta-Earth communications remain erratic, but Philae does still seem at least partially alive as 67P approaches perihelion (in November) and already spewing loads of gas and dust.
caprarom
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by caprarom »

Nice, John. That's some impressive image processing.
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

I got it wrong - 67P's perihelion is much sooner than November. It's just 3 1/2 weeks away in fact, on 13th August.
I'll be in Iceland then, on a Scientific American lecture cruise actually, so hoping the news on that day reaches there.
John
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

Some of the latest at http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/: complex organic molecules, cosmic fireworks, thermal stresses etc.
caprarom
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by caprarom »

Thanks again, John. Hope your cruise went well.
Mike
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

Mike, yes, Iceland is a wonderfully crazy place, made entirely from intermittent volcanic activity due to a mantle hot-spot coincidentally located on the mid-Atlantic ridge, and home to ~9,000,000 puffins (let alone all the other sea birds), compared to just ~500,000 sheep and only ~350,000 people.

The west lies on the North American tectonic plate, the east on the Eurasian plate, which are measurably separating at about 2 cm per year. And like Hawaii it's still growing, but being at almost Arctic latitude the oldest parts have also been dramatically sculpted by the massive glaciers during the last Ice Age between 18,000 – 10,000 BC.

It’s a visible lesson in the complex factors involved in Earth’s history, let alone our solar system and galaxy, including those few dusty components that have ended up at such-and-such coordinates in Stardust’s aerogel tiles, and why they can be so precious for the tale they may tell.

And no wonder Björks music can be a bit weird!
John
DanZ
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by DanZ »

Now if someone can only apply some of that knowledge and figure out what's going on under the surface of Ceres: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

Indeed, Dan.

Besides your NASA July link, this is the best of the latest public articles re Ceres I can find (bright spots & conical mountain) : http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-bl ... ceres.html (22 Aug ’15).

And the very latest re Philae, last heard from in July, in fascinating detail by the team:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/09/11 ... ilae-team/ (11 Sept ‘15).

John
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by DanZ »

Thanks John. I've been wondering without taking the time to look it up. Absolutely fascinating! Dan
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

A full year on since Philae's landing on 67P, this is the latest news, including videos made to represent both first contact and its subsequent bounces across bizarre landscapes. Also an all-too-brief recording of its drilling operation once stable. Sounds pretty solid to me, utterly unlike the slush-ball hypothesis.
Contact via Rosetta has remained very intermittent though, and time is running out as the comet now speeds away from the sun back into the chilly wastes.

At least the pair survived their trip round the sun, and Rosetta is still in fine fettle circling and making many detailed studies of the comet from just a few 100 km away, with plans for further dust collection from its now-dwindling tail.
And it still has a good year's work left to do until planned to join Philae on the surface toward the end of next year.

John
jsmaje
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by jsmaje »

Well, looks like RIP Philae:

12 Jan:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/12/10754 ... nuary-2016
25 Jan:
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/goodbye-philae

Good try though, and no doubt others will follow.
Mother Rosetta has already performed brilliantly, and it seems a shame to actually crash it into 67P later this year!

John
Last edited by jsmaje on Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
caprarom
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Re: Rosetta/Philae spacecraft success

Post by caprarom »

Thanks, John. It was a very good effort, and probably at least 80% successful despite all the unknowns going into the mission. Sounds like there is yet something to learn from the presumed September finale. Well done.
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