I find this image haunting. Philae, the mission lander, as photographed from mother-ship Rosetta after release and en route to the surface of comet. Continue Reading
Space
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Excellent discussion of Rosetta mission problems…
I hope this does not come true.
A cliff hanger descended over the Rosetta space mission as fate casts a shadow when an attempt at landing went fatally awry.
It turns out that fragile and complex technology was used instead of robust tried and tested nuclear plant. Fault intolerance.
The solar cells in Rosetta’s solar panels are based on a completely new technology, so-called Low-intensity Low Temperature Cells. Thanks to them, Rosetta is the first space mission to journey beyond the main asteroid belt relying solely on solar cells for power generation. Previous deep-space missions used nuclear RTGs (Radio isotope thermal generators). The new solar cells allow Rosetta to operate over 800 million kilometres from the Sun, where levels of sunlight are only 4% those on Earth.
— http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Frequently_asked_questions
But they forgot the possibility of or ignored an unknown environment might have cliffhangers waiting. It has landed in shadow.
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History has been today made by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission that has landed a probe name Philae on the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Continue Reading
Happy November everybody! Let’s talk about deep space stuff. I was reading one of my news feeds today and one of them seemed to suggest that NASA is soliciting ideas for deep space exploration from the likes of you and me: Continue Reading
Before we do one more thing let’s work together to at least attempt to pronounce their names correctly: Chew-er-ee-you-mof; Gar-a-si-men-ko. That was easy. Chewereeyoumof-Garasimenko. Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
OK Russians and other Slavs; come on over and show us how it’s done! Continue Reading
