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Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”
- JorgeGT 10y agoPlease ESA, do not make another of those cute Rosetta & Philae comics for this. :_(
- mind_heist 10y agoThey tweeted the old ones though : https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/758231095829729280 https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/758231095829729280
- supercoder 10y agoSeems Twitter's increasing abuse problems are causing everyone to leave.
- dexterdog 10y agoSome people don't even get the choice.
- bhrgunatha 10y agoI wonder how much impact the UK's withdrawal from the EU will have on the ESA and future missions.
- neoeldex 10y agoI think the UK will continue to participate in the ESA, since they are different organizations for different purposes.
- pavlov 10y agoA substantial chunk of ESA's budget comes through EU. So the cost of UK's membership in ESA might increase, as they won't be participating through EU anymore. That's the kind of thing that is hard to justify to Brexiteer voters though... "Now that we're rid of the EU, we have a unique opportunity to pay more tax money to other intergovernmental organisations!"
- base 10y agoHere you have ESA funding by source: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/01/ESA_budget_2016 http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/01/ESA_budget_2... EU funding doesn't go to the main funding budget of ESA but to other activities like the Galileo satellite system.
- pavlov 10y agoHere's a source specifically for the EU portion of the ESA budget: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU "Some 20 per cent of the funds managed by ESA now originate from the EU budget." I'm not disagreeing with you, but it seems unlikely that UK just won't participate in that 20% of ESA activities anymore. So they'll have to renegotiate the membership fee to account for that.
- throwaway049 10y agoIt might not need a renegotiation as such, just a direct payment of the same amount as previously went via the EU account.
- pavlov 10y agoBritain can't unilaterally decide to do that. So, a renegotiation is needed. That's a big problem with Brexit. Some highly visible supporters promoted the idea that Britain will simply be able to dictate new and more favourable terms for everything that happens through the EU framework currently. It's essentially the same as what Trump is saying -- "I'll deal with China. I know how to make deals. I'll make a great deal" -- With no specifics on what the deal would be and why the other side would accept it.
- bhrgunatha 10y agoI'm sure they will continue, but as an EU member state working in the EU is much easier. Perhaps the skill levels will overcome any friction from visas and bureaucracy.
- base 10y agoESA is an intergovernmental organization, visas and any country laws don't affect them. Also it doesn't belong to EU, even Canada is part of ESA.
- talideon 10y agoVery, very little direct effect. While the EU might part-fund the ESA, it's not an EU body. The effect will be indirect, mainly due to reduced funding to UK science and less collaboration between scientists in the UK and those in the EU.
- aaron695 10y agoIf only science not religious anti-science sediment ruled the earth then they would have just used a nuclear battery instead.
- farhaven 10y agoI don't think religion had anything to do with that decision.
- ralfd 10y agoHe meant that the political/public reaction to anything nuclear (or also anything "genetic") is almost always (=quasi-religious) in shunning it.
- coldtea 10y agoWell, science also gave us Josef Mengele. He was done with puny religious and moral concerns too.
- majewsky 10y agoScience didn't give us Mengele. If at all, Mengele gave us science [1], although of course that science is tainted with the blood and pain of his subjects. [1] The fine print: I don't know if there are actual preserved recordings from his research that bore any scientific value.
- coldtea 10y ago>The fine print: I don't know if there are actual preserved recordings from his research that bore any scientific value. Sure, but that's either during to his clumsiness in experiments, or because of our refusal to accept such horrendous material for further use (even if they are scientifically valid otherwise). That is, not due to some inherent logical or methodological impossibility of combining science with cruelty. If anything, not caring about the consequences (to people, animals, the environment, etc) can even accelerate scientific study. That's why I brought it as an example. To main it the point that we need to draw some lines through external normative systems (religion, morals, ethical concerns etc), because science itself is just a method of inquiry, nothing inherent in it about being humane or responsible.
- Vexs 10y agoThis was one of the more fun sciencey things to keep track of, and it brought space back into the media for a short time. Godspeed lil' probe. Anyway, I kind of wish people would edit this style of title to something like "It's time for me (Philae Lander) to say goodbye"
- voidz 10y agoYes. And add a tiny violin to make it sound even more dramatic and sad.
- nostrademons 10y agoReminds me of the days of http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/ http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/ and http://opportunitygrrl.livejournal.com/ http://opportunitygrrl.livejournal.com/
- mind_heist 10y agoAh! thanks for this, I had no idea this existed . I have been reading Steve Squyres' - Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet for the past few months , and its pretty awesome. He gives a really wholesome perspective of what it took to get a ride to the Red Planet. I 'm going to read these journals kinda .. in parallel to the part of the book which explains post landing incidents.
- austinjp 10y agoReading this genuinely made me tear-up! It also gives me hope though. We seem to be slowly, sloooowly growing our way off Terra.
- bitwize 10y ago"Was I a good probe? I know that I didn't quite stick the landing, but everything turned out all right in the end... right? That's all I ever wanted."
- Pinatubo 10y agoTo honor this occasion I'm wearing a shirt featuring ladies in bikinis.
- Aaronn 10y agoAnd now it has been turned off, here is a video they made: https://twitter.com/DLR_en/status/758341091070476290 https://twitter.com/DLR_en/status/758341091070476290
- brianpgordon 10y agoI thought the Philae lander was incommunicado anyway because it landed in shadow and its batteries ran down. Shutting off the system which is supposed to communicate with it doesn't really seem like a milestone.
- trose 10y agoThey definitely got it back online. It ended up getting enough sun to heat back up and get it's batteries juiced.
- mind_heist 10y agoIts heart breaking to see these missions come to an end though they are all planned only for a few weeks in the first place. I m really glad that Philae came along this far , this was a really really complicated mission - Right from soft landing on the comet nucleus( remember the previous attempts in getting to a comet were impact probes) , loosing that one thruster prior to detaching from Rosetta , having troubles with primary & second batteries , going into safe mode , hibernating and re-awaking again , constant absence of sunlight to recharge batteries and all the delay in receiving signals back from Rosetta - This must have been one heck of an emotional ride for all the involved engineers and scientists. Mad Respect ! I m not sure if Philae conducted all the originally planned experiments or not , Would love for someone to comment on that. And I love what message they had in the final video update, - now that they shut down the communication module of Rosetta that would talk to Philae - all those power would be used to conduct other experiments ! They managed to throw in some positivity there.