Have fun!
But I'll bet the plot isn't as good as Viking, Voyager or Giotto....
Have fun Brid-Aine, and keep us posted...for us unfortunates, work will prevent us keeping up live...
The fridge-sized science 'bot the European Space Agency hopes will land on a comet hurtling through space today has successfully separated from its comet-chasing parent craft, Rosetta. Scientists at ESA Mission Control look on nervously as Philae approaches the comet. Pic: ESA/J. Mai Scientists at ESA Mission Control look on …
Go Philae !!!
But El Reg is still deviating from its own standards. A fridge is not mentioned on the standards converter page, so 'a fridge' is not an approved Vulture Central unit.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
A hectograpefruit would probably be the Reg-approved size of the lander.
The Grauniad says the comet is "about the size of central London" but also "10 times the length of a US aircraft carrier". Can this be added to the standards converter? i.e. 1 Central London = 10 aircraft carriers?
http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/12/rosetta-comet-landing-live-blog
Can this be added to the standards converter? i.e. 1 Central London = 10 aircraft carriers?
We already have Brontosaurs & Wales for such measurements, so they'd be a bit redundant. However if/when Philae is successful, maybe it could become the unit of measurement for size of space probes? Philae almost sounds like a unit already!
Gas Mark zero would be the oven is off - so room temperature (assuming it's not still cooling down) - so about +18 degrees C.
Since the surface of the Philae is around MINUS 70 degree C , and gas mark 1 starts at +110 deg C, no meaningful comparison can be made
On the 'fucking cold' scale however, this is 'where's my welder, my brass balls have just fallen off'
The out of action thruster could be bad news. Now if the ground is hard when Philae fires the harpoons, won't the recoil kick it back into space with no way to get back (since the harpoons will not have penetrated the ground)? The comet has almost no gravity!
Soon we will know.
Now if the ground is hard when Philae fires the harpoons, won't the recoil kick it back into space with no way to get back
The thing has some built-in "suspension" - when the feet touch surface, the main body is still moving towards the comet. Of course, if the harpoons fail to grip...
If they find them, it will put a big tick next to that bit of the life-from-space hypothesis. If they don't find them, then the hypothesis stays as it. Anyway, we all know that life on earth started when the Jaggaroth space ship exploded during lift off, scattering alien amino acids across the primal soup of the planet.
> Are oz washing machines the same size as pommy fridges?
No idea but a washing machine is also for beer, i.e. all the ale-quaffing overspill is harvested from clothes using a spin cycle for the 'landlord special blend' barrel which is already fed from a complex network of underfloor guttering.
not sure about austrailian washihg machines but most UK washing machines are about the same size as the average sized fridge, of course the huge US style (double wardrobe sized) fridges also exist in the UK but are less common (at least in my part of the UK) than the smaller washing machine/tumble drier/small freezer sized refirgerators
"No idea but a washing machine is also for beer, i.e. all the ale-quaffing overspill is harvested from clothes using a spin cycle for the 'landlord special blend' barrel which is already fed from a complex network of underfloor guttering."
Swipes is the technical term for this.
http://www.blackrock.co.nz/beer-bible
I'm sure there was another word for it in a Barry crump (or possibly Ronald Morrieson) book, which eludes me.
Why is the video feed so much Dead Air ?
And even when it's not, they keep coming on air late and missing updates listed in their posts, including the first images, due at 13:15 ( 20 minutes ago ), they told us.
If this is so historic, shouldn't ESA be a bit more professional in telling us about it ?
Now we switch from Dead Air and a view of an empty control room to a man standing at a podium ( in jacket, not a hoodie this time ) being talked at in French and German. Simultaneously.
Still saying nothing himself, but looking uncomfortable.
And ... he's gone.
Replaced by a test card reading "Webcast from Mission Control STAY TUNED"
I thought our future in space would be more ... organised.
Facts about 67P being a comet (and not a planet or moon) aside, is this also the furthest 'soft' landing that's ever been attempted? Anyone know for sure? I recall reading something that 67P is some 580M km away or something, which is further than Mars at it's most distant? Or have I cocked up my numbers here?
They are showing a card with "Landing Confirmation 15:00 CET" on.
Except according to the ESA timeline, landing won't be confirmed until 17:02:20 ?!
ESA PR seems to be run by the people in line for the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet. Ship D.
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/07/rosetta-and-philae-landing-timeline/