Philae has landed.

here is a whole pletora of images of the comet. I guess not too long before some will see all sorts of artifacts
www.flickr.com...

Someone tracking this thread must know:

( And my apologies if it's already been touched on )

How much faster is this asteroid moving than the satellite we launched X years ago that just passed Pluto? The name of the satellite escapes me, sadly...

Presuming that this asteroid is moving significantly faster than said satellite; we ought to get back telemetry from much further out in space than ever before on a much shorter schedule than ever previously anticipated.

So... Anyone know? Is this now-asteroid-stationed craft moving through space any faster than our exploratory satellite(s) can?

Congrats to the Philae/Rosetta mission team members. Truly revolutionary.
This is a fascinating time to be alive...

a reply to: DigitalJedi805
I suppose you are talking about new horizon ?
It has not encountered pluto yet, it will on July 14th 2015.
According to spaceanswers.com, it is travelling at a speed of 58,536 km/h (36,373 mph), while I think Rosetta is cruising along with the comet at a maximum relative speed of 31,000 km/h (19,000 mph).

Back on topic, congratulation ESA on getting through this important milestone in space exploration.

Hang in there Philae. I mean literally.

a reply to: Hellhound604

I guess not too long before some will see all sorts of artifacts

Please, no.

originally posted by: DigitalJedi805
...Presuming that this asteroid is moving significantly faster than said satellite; we ought to get back telemetry from much further out in space than ever before on a much shorter schedule than ever previously anticipated.

So... Anyone know? Is this now-asteroid-stationed craft moving through space any faster than our exploratory satellite(s) can?

The speed of this comet will slow down considerably in a couple of years after it whips around the Sun and starts heading back out again (it's hard to move fast while trying to fight the Sun's gravity).

Plus, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a short-period comet. It may have originally come from the outer solar system, but it does not orbit that far out anymore. The current orbit of this comet takes it out only as far as somewhere a bit past Mars.

They think that Philae landed, bounced of and then landed again, and are not sure if the harpoons holding it to the comet deployed.... Guess we will have to wait for more news. All I can say is "Hang on, Buddy"

For those of you waiting for more pics and data, you will have to wait until tomorrow for more news:

Communications between Philae and mission controllers are suspended for now because the Rosetta mothership, which is orbiting 67P, went behind the comet's horizon, Ulamec said. The link should be re-established by Thursday morning (Nov. 13), he added.

t.space.com...

originally posted by: Hellhound604
Well done ESA. Philae has landed successfully on Comet 67P. I expect lots of new updates and exciting news in the next couple of days

I myself think this is awesome. We're going to learn a lot I expect
from this venture. I'm so glad it landed successfully, or so much
money and human time and resources would have been wasted.

I heard they almost scrubbed the mission because of a thruster
problem but went ahead at the last minute.

Good Job to all the scientists that worked years, even
decades to help make this happen.

Rebel 5

a reply to: eriktheawful

Because people all over the world are starving and losing everything they have. The money from this landing on a rock could have fed most of them for days on end. This is just pure wasteful since they already know what they are composed off, since blasting a crater in one and catching the debris.

I see nothing but large mining companies behind this, while the public funds it, since Rubies were found in the debris of the last comet they blasted.

originally posted by: WanderingSage
Kinda cool, but I still feel like it's a waste of money, time, and resources. That's just me. Congratulations to those who think this will save the world one day.

Hey, who'da thought that a compass needle twitching when someone stuck a lodestone in a coil of wire would have evolved into the basis for our civilization?

And apocryphally, that got the same response - what good is it?

originally posted by: Patriotsrevenge
a reply to: eriktheawful

I see nothing but large mining companies behind this, while the public funds it, since Rubies were found in the debris of the last comet they blasted.

Hardly. Ruby is one of the easier gemstones to make.

Harpoons did not fire, so the drill may not be able to be used as the lander is not anchored. Very sad.

originally posted by: WanderingSage
a reply to: yorkshirelad

Why don't we expand our knowledge to create less pollution? Or on getting more eco friendly homes more cost efficient. Or helping more people with medical problems. There's a lot of knowledge we could gain that would help the human race right here on Earth. Not saying this isn't cool or anything or a milestone in space exploration, but I think we need to get our ducks in a row here on Earth before we expand. Just not a lot of practical use.

I was around during the Apollo missions and watched as certain segments of the population were given air time to complain about all those millions of dollars wasted when there were so many hungry/homeless/ to feed.. It finally took root and Apollo was canceled before the last two missions (if I remember correctly)... Regardless other than canceling Apollo what we got for our reinvestment are children who are borne for welfare checks and more homeless and hungry..

Someone who wants to drop out of school (as sorry as it is) and expect to make their way in a competitive job market gets what they deserve for their short sightedness..

You feed and take care of any population you just make more with the same mind set...

The economy was much better back then than it is today. Jobs were plentiful not like today. Hitching a ride into space with Russia and paying them is not my idea of a robust space program....

Not really sure why this is cause for excitement, just what does anybody think is going to come from this??

Maybe 30 years ago this would have seemed cool, but for all those claiming this is such advanced amazing stuff, with such hard calculations, someone should remind you your smartphone was thousands of times harder to design than this.\

Interesting people actually think that these things make a difference to our totally controlled world, and our existence.

Not without approval, from...................

a reply to: ParasuvO

a reply to: WanderingSage

lmao.....now compare the space budgets to the military budgets.

Get real banana peel. We are all sick of earths problems. Nice to be able to step away from them for a moment to appreciate where we could be in the future if we can pull our # together as a species.

here is the first (UNCONFIRMED) pic of the surface as taken by Philae.

Apparently it bounced 3 times over 2 hours before coming to a rest...

originally posted by: WanderingSage
a reply to: JadeStar

The big picture is the Earth is at the brink of world war, disease, famine, etc. Landing a hunk of metal on a comet does nothing for us. This comet isn't going to all of a sudden change the universe for us. If the human race keeps going the way it is none of us will have descendants in 500 years. I'd rather see that funding for this go to something way more effective in helping the Earth.

The problem with your thinking is that it is very small.

You do not see that all you described are symptoms of a problem of which there is no solution on Earth to get us out of. Dwindling resources or the perception of them are what lead to the things you describe above.

What on Earth (pun intended) would the tiny cost of this mission be put towards to create abundance to solve those problems?

The abundance needed to solve them lay above your head both figuratively and literally.

This is not a zero sum game. Just because we are doing one does not mean a) we're not doing the other and b) we're running counter to the other.

Quite the contrary!!!

The technologies needed to live on an increasingly inhospitable planet happen to also be the same ones needed to explore and eventually populate the already inhospitable places in our solar system and beyond.

They won't appear by magic or wishful thinking.

They will appear by clever thinking by our clever species having to respond to new and DIFFERENT challenges in new and DIFFERENT ways which space drives us to do. This response to a challenges of living in new and different places what has driven our ability to ADAPT and evolve throughout human history. It is what has given us our intellect. How dare we stop evolving?

So what will drive us towards developing the technologies and techniques needed to squeeze more space out of our Earth and make better use of it in an inward looking world?

Very little.

War and entertainment are the only two things with massive budgets big enough to do so and neither of them seem likely to make our world any better than it is.

To the contrary......

The space programs of the world have developed plenty of things which are helping life on Earth EVERY SINGLE DAY. These are called spinoff technologies and there is a yearly report on them you can google or just go here to get educated about them.

Even developing nations like India know this which is why they and others invest in space exploration and exploitation. It's an investment in our future.

Our world's problems are based on an economy of scarcity.

Our future solutions will be based on an economy of abundance.

Space it just so happens is a place of abundance. Nearly every energy and resource problem we have (and the adjacent environmental ones) can be solved through pollution-less, clean, green space technologies like Solar Power Satellites, Helium-3 Fusion, etc.

Every precious metal exists in asteroids.

And the solution to overcrowding on Earth (where many of the problems you indicate stem from) is ironically, more livable space.

Ideas on how to create more liveable space on Earth just so happen to have got their start from the 1960s space program. From modular buildings to vertical expansion rather than urban sprawl. All of that began from looking at how to construct a Moon or Mars colony because that forced us to think DIFFERENTLY about how we would live out there, and perhaps even down here.

The environmental movement which took hold in the 1970s was fueled by the iconic image from Apollo 11 of our Earth seen from space.

The people who have seen the Earth from space have said it transforms how they think about our world and what we're doing in it and to it.

Do you not want more people to have that experience and perhaps the inspiration it will give them to actually help solve some of the problems you mentioned?

Dwelling on a dystopian future as portrayed by Hollywood, the mainstream media and so on is en vogue. I get that.

But we will get not only the future we dream of, we will get the future we deserve.

It's time to dream bigger dreams than nihilistic dystopian existence when we have the brainpower to go in the other direction.

The "Star Trek" world of the future IS possible if we dare. It is not a matter of if we are smart enough, we've proven that. It's now just a matter of if we are brave enough and have the will to make it happen.

In that grand vision there is no place for myopia. A better world is possible if we dare look up. By looking up, we also end up looking at our future. What will be our children and their children's present.

We also look into the mirror and see ourselves as one humanity whose problems are interwoven and transcend national borders. A humanity whose solutions will ALSO transcend nations and even the Earth itself.

Perhaps it's time for all of us to raise our expectations? Moments like this landing not only do that but are also first practical steps to accessing that economy of abundance above our heads and apparently above yours.

The dinosaurs as mighty and prolific as they were had small brains and small dreams. They fought amongst themselves while a threat they could never haver perceived loomed.

And they couldn't stop that asteroid any more than a society turning inward and fighting amongst itself as you would have us do could.

Dream better. Dream bigger. You're allowed. You are not a dinosaur.

another pic. Can't wait for the panorama.

a reply to: ParasuvO

Not really sure why this is cause for excitement, just what does anybody think is going to come from this??

Hanslune gave a really good reason here:

Its also useful practice if we need to land a ship on a comet with a diversion engine sometime in the future. By 'diversion engin'e I mean an ion engine to shift a comet out of its orbit so it will not hit earth.

Hanslune's post