17 ms·

Philae has landed

1165 points by talltofu 12y ago

Live coverage here http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220000361.html Thanks @brianpgordon - Check out this gif of the orbital maneuvers required for Rosetta to reach its destination: https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif Live twitter feed of ESA https://twitter.com/esaoperations It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding

apa-sl 12y ago
Awesome! Launched over 10 years ago (our "smartphones" back then had 1mpix cameras, youtube was not born yet, etc), travelled +6,5b km and nailed a target 3-4km wide...
jmccreery 12y ago
No announcement yet, but just now in the ESA webcast of the control room everyone stopped, gathered around a guy that I assume is the team lead, and are now going home. I have a bad feeling about this.
neiled 12y ago
Seeing their faces on the live feed when it landed was amazing. It must be so exciting.
- GotAnyMegadeth 12y ago
  It is so exciting, even from watching the live stream!
talltofu 12y ago
Live streaming of the event here http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220000361.html http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220... Thanks @brianpgordon - Check out this gif of the orbital maneuvers required for Rosetta to reach its destination: https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif Live twitter feed of ESA https://twitter.com/esaoperations https://twitter.com/esaoperations It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding
- harywilke 12y ago
  or straight from the ESA http://rosetta.esa.int/?landing http://rosetta.esa.int/?landing
  - ffk 12y ago
    The NASA TV iPad app works too.
  - sp332 12y ago
    Or the xkcd version https://xkcd.com/1446/ https://xkcd.com/1446/ (see older frames at http://xkcd1446.org/ http://xkcd1446.org/, the first few are blank so start around #16)
    - Kiro 12y ago
      What is this? What's the point?
      - sp332 12y ago
        It's a series of over 100 frames that are being drawn and uploaded live before and during the probe launch. It illustrates the position and status of the probe. (Edit: it's still updating)
      - recycleme 12y ago
        https://xkcd.com/about/ https://xkcd.com/about/
  - JonnieCache 12y ago
    The official one was struggling hard when I tried. The BBC is putting out the same stream, with english translations when appropriate: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988
- stinos 12y ago
  any link to footage of the actual landing?
Gravityloss 12y ago
"where were you when Philae landed?"
- ommunist 12y ago
  Actually watching the live Rosetta event from Darmstadt. And I am about to drink for the success of this mission right now. Still can't believe it happened. SO much work, 10 years of work. This is how international large scale co-operation should be.
- jedp 12y ago
  Or even, Where were you 40 minutes before we heard that Philae had landed?
Sven7 12y ago
Big congrats to all involved! What an achievement!
anExcitedBeast 12y ago
Science is amazing. I'm glad to be living in a period where I get to be around for stuff like this.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
Amazing job! This might be a silly question but are their any ideas as to the actual real world benefits we could see from this? The director-general of the ESA said "This is a big step for human civilisation" so I presume there is some idea of what they expect to gain from this mission? Edit: Thanks for all the replies! I'm at work now but will take a look at them this evening.
- harywilke 12y ago
  i watched a docu on the large hadron collider and the search for the higgs boson particle where they asked one of the scientists a similar question. what do you expect to gain monitarily from that xBillion dollars we just spent on this? his reply was 'i don't know'. he went on to give the example of how when radio waves were first discovered nobody called them 'radio waves' because no one had thought to use them in that way yet. I think a lot of exploritory science can be framed this way. we do it to get a better understanding of the world we live in.
  - corin_ 12y ago
    Reminds me of a great conversation in The West Wing (one of the best written shows ever made, in my opinion). A senator (ENLOW) has put an anonymous hold on building a supercollider, the white house deputy communications director (SAM) wants to help his old professor (MILLGATE) get the budget approved for it, and this is near the end of the episode: ENLOW I'm a Democrat, Sam. How's a 20 billion dollar astronomy lecture gonna help the President get elected? SAM It won't. "We've discovered a seamless, intellectual framework for the universe" isn't a good 30-second spot. ENLOW If only we could only say what benefit this thing has, but no one's been able to do that. MILLGATE That's because great achievement has no road map. The X-ray's pretty good. So is penicillin. Neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now, we have an entire world run by electronics. Haydn and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't. They invented them. SAM Discovery. MILLGATE What? SAM That's the thing that you were... Discovery is what. That's what this is used for. It's for discovery. (I tried to find a clip, because Sorkin's writing is even more beautiful when acted by Rob Lowe.. but can't on YouTube.)
rabino 12y ago
we just landed a friggin' robot into a friggin' commet mind blowing
- tmmm 12y ago
  Not really we... Just very few people, most of us have no idea how they've done it.
  - throwit99 12y ago
    But we all paid for it. We paid tax so they could play with toys.
    - pnut 12y ago
      In the time you've spent whining on this forum, you could have made many times your proportional contribution to this endeavor. I'm in agreement w/ all the downvoters here - you are absolutely entitled to whatever opinion you desire to hold, but if you're going to be sharing it in a public forum, deliver sound criticism or don't bother. Your comments are beneath the quality of conversation expected at HN.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- ommunist 12y ago
  It really is mind blowing. The degree of intergovernmental co-operatoin is incredible. The lander electronics has Hungarian know how, brought there by Hungarian scientists. Radiation-protected processors are American. The whole thing is supervised by Germany together with France. Absolutely fantastic.
bsaul 12y ago
Anyone knows where i could find some info about the software stack this kind of probes are being built with ? Languages, programming methods, patching methods,os, runtime, etc. I'm really curious to know how different it is from the web or enterprise development worlds.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  Ron Garrett (formerly Erann Gat) has some background on how these decisions are made. It's not pretty. http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html
  - swah 12y ago
    Also his "How I lost faith in Lisp" post is interesting. I'm not sure how I stand on "w/ a great language one does great things" vs "great engineers do great things with any tools they have" debate.
- fit2rule 12y ago
  Start with vxWorks.
- _ak 12y ago
  There is not much to find, but apparently, they do software updates over the "air": http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/03/28/software-upgrade-at-655-million-kilometres/ http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/03/28/software-upgrade-at-...
- adamfeldman 12y ago
  Like other embedded systems, spacecraft computers use real-time operating systems (RTOS) and languages: * The Rosetta probe ultimately runs SCL (Spacecraft Command Language) [1], a COTS spacecraft programming language developed for sale to the military [2]; SCL is based on the syntax of Ada 83, which has a long legacy in spaceflight and other real-time applications (e.g. Boeing 777) [3]. However, what are known as Flight Control Procedures (uploaded commands), are written using another language and transformed and compiled into SCL in a two-step process that involves XSLT [1]. On-board Control Procedures, which are procedures the probe decides on its own to run, and handle tasks such as receiving FCPs and sending back telemetry, are written in SCL [1]. * The Mars rover Curiosity is programmed in C and uses the VxWorks RTOS [4], which is very much like many commercial embedded systems. It has about 2.5 million lines of code, much of it autogenerated. Curiosity's predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, used the same software stack, as did their predecessor, Sojourner [8]. * The Voyager probe, which has now left the solar system and entered interstellar space, uses "...interrupt driven computer[s], similar to processors used in general purpose computers with a few special instructions for increased efficiency. The programming is a form of assembly language." [5] * The Space Shuttle was programmed in a custom language called HAL/S (High-order Assembly Language/Shuttle) [6], as was the Jupiter probe Galileo [7]. The language is descended from PL/I and its compiler is written in a subset of PL/I called XPL. [1]: http://www.rheagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SpaceOps2010_MOIS-OBCP.pdf http://www.rheagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SpaceOps... [2]: https://www.sra.com/scl/ https://www.sra.com/scl/ [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) [4]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159638 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159638 [5]: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/faq.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/faq.html [6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL/S https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL/S [7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft) [8]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159687 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159687
spdy 12y ago
For anyone who wants to see how they got there http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/ http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/ pretty mind blowing for me to plan ahead 10 years
- muyuu 12y ago
  That's pretty informative.
- ajuc 12y ago
  And to near miss planets 4 times in that period just right to steal some momentum from them through gravity...
adregan 12y ago
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but how does Philae stay put? If the gravity strong enough to keep it on the surface? Also, as the comet nears the sun and parts of the comet start flying off, is there a threat of Philae getting swept along with it?
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  Harpoon, ice screw. Retro-rockets failed to deploy.
- forgotpasswd3x 12y ago
  The robot deployed harpoons to fasten itself to the 2.5-mile-wide ball of ice and dust.
  - gt565k 12y ago
    the harpoons failed to anchor to the surface, according to mission control, which was just announced on the live coverage. It appears they will try to reshoot the harpoons at some point if possible.
  - a-priori 12y ago
    I love how simple and low-tech this solution is. People have been using anchored ropes and cables of various kinds to fasten things together for millennia. People have been using harpoons at sea for whaling for centuries.
    - Cthulhu_ 12y ago
      I now have a picture of the lander having one ivory leg and the asteroid called Moby Dick. Thanks, :p
- 4ad 12y ago
  Gravity is very weak, it harpooned itself into the surface. The comet doesn't come very close to the sun, only around 1.2AU or so.
- 12y ago
the_rosentotter 12y ago
Coverage of this has been very confusing. The ESA live feed at most times show people in some kind of control room staring at screens. There is no apparent way to see any highlights, unless I want to try scrolling back and forth through the hour-long video stream. At any given time, various forum threads seem to have more information than the ESA site, which seems to communicate mostly through either lighthearted tweets, one-line headlines, or general background articles. All I want is a simple timeline of events, constantly updated with latest news and images. Instead we have forum threads where you have to dig through comments to find out what is the newest info.
- jarek 12y ago
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988
  - Brakenshire 12y ago
    The Guardian live-blog is good as well. Less tweet-heavy than the BBC: http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/12/rosetta-comet-landing-live-blog http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/...
    - collyw 12y ago
      The guardian seems to have made more fuss about the guys shirt than the actual event.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  >> "All I want is a simple timeline of events, constantly updated with latest news and images" OT but it's kind of amazing that this is actually a simple request these days.
india_congrats 12y ago
Congratulations Europe. But why don't we hear people saying that the EU should focus on their poverty first and would be better off putting this money into getting the Greece, Spain, and Italy economies in order?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - india_congrats 12y ago
    There are some very poor parts of Europe - some with poverty levels almost as bad as rural America.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - ommunist 12y ago
      I was born in one of those parts. I can compare. And I am very glad to see that the EU is capable of space missions of such magnitude.
- paglia_s 12y ago
  I'm italian. There are two things I would like to point out: I read that the mission cost about 1.6 bilion $, with that money you don't solve much in countries of about 11, 45 and 60 milion people. Also, speaking for Italy, I don't think we need more money if we're going to waste it. We need to make reforms, stop wasting a LOT of money and so on
- ommunist 12y ago
  You won't believe how much attention the EU gives to poverty issues. This is why there are no many poor people in the EU.
- erazor42 12y ago
  As a EU guy paying taxes i prefer giving my money to space program rather than into those useless corrupted politician who "govern" us.
FlyingSnake 12y ago
This is an incredible day for science and Humanity. ESA, CNSA, ISRO, SpaceX etc have done a great job so far to carry forward the legacy of NASA and ROSCOSMOS to new levels. Still can't believe ESA planned and landed a robot on a comet. Bravo!
kartikkumar 12y ago
Absolutely stunning feat of engineering. My bosses are on the drill team for Philae and were amongst the nervy faces being beamed all over the world. Great example of what European nations can do when politics don't get in the way. ExoMars [1] and Bepi-Colombo [2] are perfect examples of the inverse. Look forward to the first pictures from the surface. I'm at the Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting [3] in Tucson at the moment, and there are already incredible results being presented based on data acquired by Rosetta. Stay tuned for a whole lot more! [1] http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46048-programme-overview http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46048-programme-overview [2] http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_overview2 http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_... [3] http://aas.org/meetings/dps46 http://aas.org/meetings/dps46
- throwit99 12y ago
  At the risk of turning political, it's a great example of how our taxes are wasted. Playing with space toys shouldn't be funded with taxpayer money. I'm sure I'll get downvoted to hell for this, but why should my money be funding this? Sorry, but it has no benefit whatsoever. edit: Instead of downvoting a dissenting voice, why not argue your case - why should taxpayers fund space toys? edit2: Well, looks like I'm banned from commenting. Good job dealing with those that don't agree with you...
  - return0 12y ago
    I 'd dare you to specify what's more important where your money should be spent.
    - throwit99 12y ago
      Health, welfare, lowering taxes, employment.... y'know, things that enrich real peoples lives. Space toys and exploration are fun for those working on them, but will this event transform civilisation? Nope. Did the moon landing really transform civilisation? Nope.
      - 12y ago
sktrdie 12y ago
More analysis of @Philae2014 telemetry indicates harpoons did not fire as 1st thought Ouch, seems like it didn't land? https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440 https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440 edit - the landing is confirmed, however the harpoons did not fire: https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464 https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464
- masklinn 12y ago
  It did land, here's the next tweet: > It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding but the harpoons may have failed to fire.
  - sktrdie 12y ago
    Ah my bad. Nonetheless it seems like harpoons did not fire. Tweet from just 30 secs ago: https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464 https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464 Can it stay on the surface without the harpoons?
    - 32faction 12y ago
      > Can it stay on the surface without the harpoons? technically yes. Philae has harpoons along with foot screws to secure it to the comet, but if harpoons are super glue, foot screws are tape.
  - easytiger 12y ago
    Why does it need to anchor itself? It's not like it will blow away?
    - jarin 12y ago
      It could actually, since there's already outgassing on the comet.
    - 12y ago
humanfromearth 12y ago
I highly recommend this video that explains how Philae works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77-Z_DHTlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77-Z_DHTlY
rodolphoarruda 12y ago
"Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership" To me, no other statement could be more impacting. Earth is finally sending motherships to space. feeling mind-boggled
bd 12y ago
First images from Philae's ROLIS camera: ----------------------- 1) 3km above comet: https://twitter.com/DLR_de/status/532587248555143169 https://twitter.com/DLR_de/status/532587248555143169 2) Few seconds before landing: https://twitter.com/nanotousch/status/532593372218023936 https://twitter.com/nanotousch/status/532593372218023936 3) First surface image? http://i.imgur.com/0XK8Ar4.jpg http://i.imgur.com/0XK8Ar4.jpg 4) Possibly a new image from the descent? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2QySLrCUAAZbEL.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2QySLrCUAAZbEL.jpg Edit: no, here is the source (Rosetta's NavCam from yesterday): http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/NAVCAM_top_10_at_10_km_5 http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/NAVCAM_top_1... ----------------------- Rosetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS) http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=PHILAE%20%20%20-02 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=PHILA...
ajuc 12y ago
Wow, I listen to the solutions they invented to hibernate the probe safely - to save on the electricity they had to hibernate it, but then it could have change orientation relative to sun, and wouldn't have enough energy to wake up. So they disabled the orientation system to save energy, but first they made the probe rotate quickly to stabilise it like a gyroscope. That's stuff from sci-fi books / Mc Gyver movie :)
ommunist 12y ago
This is huge. In both technical and political ways. And bringing all the details into live online event is twice as huge. I just watched the guy reporting the unsuccessful initial anchoring of the probe, and I felt so happy that I could see this. Incredible. By the way the lander software runs on Harris RTX2010 processors -- the US contribution.
jnem 12y ago
Total non-sequitor but...I'm surprised no one else has yet made the observation that Philae Lander put together is philaender, or philander. Juvenile post of the day award anybody?
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
ITT downvoting to invisibility because you disagree with someone honestly held and cogently expressed opinions. Silencing diverse opinions is quite possibly the worst facet of HN.
- TomGullen 12y ago
  Libertarian world philosophy is totally bunk (if that's what you were referring to). I down vote most of that because it's generally ridiculous.
  - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
    Just that opinions off the norm seem to be too readily moved to opacity -> 0. The idea that government shouldn't freely use taxation to fund projects that apparently only return a mild satiation of curiosity is a valid opinion, for example, and was apparently expressed honestly, without malice. I'm not settled on where I stand with that (I tend towards cooperative and communist ideals) but I certainly don't stand on the side of "those expressing these views need to be censured" (nor censored as it happens); which is what appears to be happening. It's possibly that I'm being over-sensitive towards the failings of the HN UI as much as anything.
  - ganzuul 12y ago
    But what if you were no longer allowed to hold this particular opinion? If we generalize the postulate, it does not compute.
    - TomGullen 12y ago
      You're allowed to hold this opinion, where did I suggest you're not allowed it?
Killah911 12y ago
It is just me or has the story evolved into something a bit less jubilant in the course of the last two hours. It's an amazing feat, but this stuff is always a huge gamble. As someone's who's worked on a few spacecraft project I feel really bad for the team(s) (recently worked on one which didn't go so well, years of work down the tube). Even if it didn't go perfectly I hope they're commended for the work they've done so far & the landing they achieved.
jarmitage 12y ago
Three.js version of the comet http://cabbi.bo/rosetta/ http://cabbi.bo/rosetta/
shitlord 12y ago
Awesome! Think of all the nice desktop backgrounds I'm going to have. I am wondering what this will mean for humanity. Do you guys think the insights we gain from Philae will be as impactful as the ones from other space missions?
- Cthulhu_ 12y ago
  If it turns out the asteroid is full of platinum or other rare / expensive minerals, unlike the moon which seemed barren rock, it'll be enormous and the start of the true space age IMO.
JulianMorrison 12y ago
First successful unintended lithobraking in the history of space ;-P

Philae has landed

1165 points by talltofu 12y ago

apa-sl 12y ago

Awesome! Launched over 10 years ago (our "smartphones" back then had 1mpix cameras, youtube was not born yet, etc), travelled +6,5b km and nailed a target 3-4km wide...

jmccreery 12y ago

No announcement yet, but just now in the ESA webcast of the control room everyone stopped, gathered around a guy that I assume is the team lead, and are now going home. I have a bad feeling about this.

neiled 12y ago

Seeing their faces on the live feed when it landed was amazing. It must be so exciting.

GotAnyMegadeth 12y ago
It is so exciting, even from watching the live stream!

talltofu 12y ago

Live streaming of the event here http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220000361.html http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220... Thanks @brianpgordon - Check out this gif of the orbital maneuvers required for Rosetta to reach its destination: https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif Live twitter feed of ESA https://twitter.com/esaoperations https://twitter.com/esaoperations It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding

harywilke 12y ago
or straight from the ESA http://rosetta.esa.int/?landing http://rosetta.esa.int/?landing
- ffk 12y ago
  The NASA TV iPad app works too.
- sp332 12y ago
  Or the xkcd version https://xkcd.com/1446/ https://xkcd.com/1446/ (see older frames at http://xkcd1446.org/ http://xkcd1446.org/, the first few are blank so start around #16)
  - Kiro 12y ago
    What is this? What's the point?
    - sp332 12y ago
      It's a series of over 100 frames that are being drawn and uploaded live before and during the probe launch. It illustrates the position and status of the probe. (Edit: it's still updating)
    - recycleme 12y ago
      https://xkcd.com/about/ https://xkcd.com/about/
- JonnieCache 12y ago
  The official one was struggling hard when I tried. The BBC is putting out the same stream, with english translations when appropriate: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988
stinos 12y ago
any link to footage of the actual landing?

Gravityloss 12y ago

"where were you when Philae landed?"

ommunist 12y ago
Actually watching the live Rosetta event from Darmstadt. And I am about to drink for the success of this mission right now. Still can't believe it happened. SO much work, 10 years of work. This is how international large scale co-operation should be.
jedp 12y ago
Or even, Where were you 40 minutes before we heard that Philae had landed?

Sven7 12y ago

Big congrats to all involved! What an achievement!

anExcitedBeast 12y ago

Science is amazing. I'm glad to be living in a period where I get to be around for stuff like this.

k-mcgrady 12y ago

Amazing job! This might be a silly question but are their any ideas as to the actual real world benefits we could see from this? The director-general of the ESA said "This is a big step for human civilisation" so I presume there is some idea of what they expect to gain from this mission? Edit: Thanks for all the replies! I'm at work now but will take a look at them this evening.

harywilke 12y ago
i watched a docu on the large hadron collider and the search for the higgs boson particle where they asked one of the scientists a similar question. what do you expect to gain monitarily from that xBillion dollars we just spent on this? his reply was 'i don't know'. he went on to give the example of how when radio waves were first discovered nobody called them 'radio waves' because no one had thought to use them in that way yet. I think a lot of exploritory science can be framed this way. we do it to get a better understanding of the world we live in.
- corin_ 12y ago
  Reminds me of a great conversation in The West Wing (one of the best written shows ever made, in my opinion). A senator (ENLOW) has put an anonymous hold on building a supercollider, the white house deputy communications director (SAM) wants to help his old professor (MILLGATE) get the budget approved for it, and this is near the end of the episode: ENLOW I'm a Democrat, Sam. How's a 20 billion dollar astronomy lecture gonna help the President get elected? SAM It won't. "We've discovered a seamless, intellectual framework for the universe" isn't a good 30-second spot. ENLOW If only we could only say what benefit this thing has, but no one's been able to do that. MILLGATE That's because great achievement has no road map. The X-ray's pretty good. So is penicillin. Neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. And now, we have an entire world run by electronics. Haydn and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't. They invented them. SAM Discovery. MILLGATE What? SAM That's the thing that you were... Discovery is what. That's what this is used for. It's for discovery. (I tried to find a clip, because Sorkin's writing is even more beautiful when acted by Rob Lowe.. but can't on YouTube.)

rabino 12y ago

we just landed a friggin' robot into a friggin' commet mind blowing

tmmm 12y ago
Not really we... Just very few people, most of us have no idea how they've done it.
- throwit99 12y ago
  But we all paid for it. We paid tax so they could play with toys.
  - pnut 12y ago
    In the time you've spent whining on this forum, you could have made many times your proportional contribution to this endeavor. I'm in agreement w/ all the downvoters here - you are absolutely entitled to whatever opinion you desire to hold, but if you're going to be sharing it in a public forum, deliver sound criticism or don't bother. Your comments are beneath the quality of conversation expected at HN.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
ommunist 12y ago
It really is mind blowing. The degree of intergovernmental co-operatoin is incredible. The lander electronics has Hungarian know how, brought there by Hungarian scientists. Radiation-protected processors are American. The whole thing is supervised by Germany together with France. Absolutely fantastic.

bsaul 12y ago

Anyone knows where i could find some info about the software stack this kind of probes are being built with ? Languages, programming methods, patching methods,os, runtime, etc. I'm really curious to know how different it is from the web or enterprise development worlds.

Turing_Machine 12y ago
Ron Garrett (formerly Erann Gat) has some background on how these decisions are made. It's not pretty. http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html
- swah 12y ago
  Also his "How I lost faith in Lisp" post is interesting. I'm not sure how I stand on "w/ a great language one does great things" vs "great engineers do great things with any tools they have" debate.
fit2rule 12y ago
Start with vxWorks.
_ak 12y ago
There is not much to find, but apparently, they do software updates over the "air": http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/03/28/software-upgrade-at-655-million-kilometres/ http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/03/28/software-upgrade-at-...
adamfeldman 12y ago
Like other embedded systems, spacecraft computers use real-time operating systems (RTOS) and languages: * The Rosetta probe ultimately runs SCL (Spacecraft Command Language) [1], a COTS spacecraft programming language developed for sale to the military [2]; SCL is based on the syntax of Ada 83, which has a long legacy in spaceflight and other real-time applications (e.g. Boeing 777) [3]. However, what are known as Flight Control Procedures (uploaded commands), are written using another language and transformed and compiled into SCL in a two-step process that involves XSLT [1]. On-board Control Procedures, which are procedures the probe decides on its own to run, and handle tasks such as receiving FCPs and sending back telemetry, are written in SCL [1]. * The Mars rover Curiosity is programmed in C and uses the VxWorks RTOS [4], which is very much like many commercial embedded systems. It has about 2.5 million lines of code, much of it autogenerated. Curiosity's predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, used the same software stack, as did their predecessor, Sojourner [8]. * The Voyager probe, which has now left the solar system and entered interstellar space, uses "...interrupt driven computer[s], similar to processors used in general purpose computers with a few special instructions for increased efficiency. The programming is a form of assembly language." [5] * The Space Shuttle was programmed in a custom language called HAL/S (High-order Assembly Language/Shuttle) [6], as was the Jupiter probe Galileo [7]. The language is descended from PL/I and its compiler is written in a subset of PL/I called XPL. [1]: http://www.rheagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SpaceOps2010_MOIS-OBCP.pdf http://www.rheagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SpaceOps... [2]: https://www.sra.com/scl/ https://www.sra.com/scl/ [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) [4]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159638 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159638 [5]: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/faq.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/faq.html [6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL/S https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL/S [7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft) [8]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159687 http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/159687

spdy 12y ago

For anyone who wants to see how they got there http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/ http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/ pretty mind blowing for me to plan ahead 10 years

muyuu 12y ago
That's pretty informative.
ajuc 12y ago
And to near miss planets 4 times in that period just right to steal some momentum from them through gravity...

adregan 12y ago

Hope this isn't a dumb question, but how does Philae stay put? If the gravity strong enough to keep it on the surface? Also, as the comet nears the sun and parts of the comet start flying off, is there a threat of Philae getting swept along with it?

JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Harpoon, ice screw. Retro-rockets failed to deploy.
forgotpasswd3x 12y ago
The robot deployed harpoons to fasten itself to the 2.5-mile-wide ball of ice and dust.
- gt565k 12y ago
  the harpoons failed to anchor to the surface, according to mission control, which was just announced on the live coverage. It appears they will try to reshoot the harpoons at some point if possible.
- a-priori 12y ago
  I love how simple and low-tech this solution is. People have been using anchored ropes and cables of various kinds to fasten things together for millennia. People have been using harpoons at sea for whaling for centuries.
  - Cthulhu_ 12y ago
    I now have a picture of the lander having one ivory leg and the asteroid called Moby Dick. Thanks, :p
4ad 12y ago
Gravity is very weak, it harpooned itself into the surface. The comet doesn't come very close to the sun, only around 1.2AU or so.
12y ago

the_rosentotter 12y ago

Coverage of this has been very confusing. The ESA live feed at most times show people in some kind of control room staring at screens. There is no apparent way to see any highlights, unless I want to try scrolling back and forth through the hour-long video stream. At any given time, various forum threads seem to have more information than the ESA site, which seems to communicate mostly through either lighthearted tweets, one-line headlines, or general background articles. All I want is a simple timeline of events, constantly updated with latest news and images. Instead we have forum threads where you have to dig through comments to find out what is the newest info.

jarek 12y ago
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/science-environment-29985988
- Brakenshire 12y ago
  The Guardian live-blog is good as well. Less tweet-heavy than the BBC: http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/12/rosetta-comet-landing-live-blog http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/...
  - collyw 12y ago
    The guardian seems to have made more fuss about the guys shirt than the actual event.
k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "All I want is a simple timeline of events, constantly updated with latest news and images" OT but it's kind of amazing that this is actually a simple request these days.

india_congrats 12y ago

Congratulations Europe. But why don't we hear people saying that the EU should focus on their poverty first and would be better off putting this money into getting the Greece, Spain, and Italy economies in order?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- india_congrats 12y ago
  There are some very poor parts of Europe - some with poverty levels almost as bad as rural America.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - ommunist 12y ago
    I was born in one of those parts. I can compare. And I am very glad to see that the EU is capable of space missions of such magnitude.
paglia_s 12y ago
I'm italian. There are two things I would like to point out: I read that the mission cost about 1.6 bilion $, with that money you don't solve much in countries of about 11, 45 and 60 milion people. Also, speaking for Italy, I don't think we need more money if we're going to waste it. We need to make reforms, stop wasting a LOT of money and so on
ommunist 12y ago
You won't believe how much attention the EU gives to poverty issues. This is why there are no many poor people in the EU.
erazor42 12y ago
As a EU guy paying taxes i prefer giving my money to space program rather than into those useless corrupted politician who "govern" us.

FlyingSnake 12y ago

This is an incredible day for science and Humanity. ESA, CNSA, ISRO, SpaceX etc have done a great job so far to carry forward the legacy of NASA and ROSCOSMOS to new levels. Still can't believe ESA planned and landed a robot on a comet. Bravo!

kartikkumar 12y ago

Absolutely stunning feat of engineering. My bosses are on the drill team for Philae and were amongst the nervy faces being beamed all over the world. Great example of what European nations can do when politics don't get in the way. ExoMars [1] and Bepi-Colombo [2] are perfect examples of the inverse. Look forward to the first pictures from the surface. I'm at the Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting [3] in Tucson at the moment, and there are already incredible results being presented based on data acquired by Rosetta. Stay tuned for a whole lot more! [1] http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46048-programme-overview http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46048-programme-overview [2] http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_overview2 http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_... [3] http://aas.org/meetings/dps46 http://aas.org/meetings/dps46

throwit99 12y ago
At the risk of turning political, it's a great example of how our taxes are wasted. Playing with space toys shouldn't be funded with taxpayer money. I'm sure I'll get downvoted to hell for this, but why should my money be funding this? Sorry, but it has no benefit whatsoever. edit: Instead of downvoting a dissenting voice, why not argue your case - why should taxpayers fund space toys? edit2: Well, looks like I'm banned from commenting. Good job dealing with those that don't agree with you...
- return0 12y ago
  I 'd dare you to specify what's more important where your money should be spent.
  - throwit99 12y ago
    Health, welfare, lowering taxes, employment.... y'know, things that enrich real peoples lives. Space toys and exploration are fun for those working on them, but will this event transform civilisation? Nope. Did the moon landing really transform civilisation? Nope.
    - 12y ago

sktrdie 12y ago

More analysis of @Philae2014 telemetry indicates harpoons did not fire as 1st thought Ouch, seems like it didn't land? https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440 https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440 edit - the landing is confirmed, however the harpoons did not fire: https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464 https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464

masklinn 12y ago
It did land, here's the next tweet: > It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding but the harpoons may have failed to fire.
- sktrdie 12y ago
  Ah my bad. Nonetheless it seems like harpoons did not fire. Tweet from just 30 secs ago: https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464 https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464 Can it stay on the surface without the harpoons?
  - 32faction 12y ago
    > Can it stay on the surface without the harpoons? technically yes. Philae has harpoons along with foot screws to secure it to the comet, but if harpoons are super glue, foot screws are tape.
- easytiger 12y ago
  Why does it need to anchor itself? It's not like it will blow away?
  - jarin 12y ago
    It could actually, since there's already outgassing on the comet.
  - 12y ago

humanfromearth 12y ago

I highly recommend this video that explains how Philae works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77-Z_DHTlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77-Z_DHTlY

rodolphoarruda 12y ago

"Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership" To me, no other statement could be more impacting. Earth is finally sending motherships to space. feeling mind-boggled

bd 12y ago

First images from Philae's ROLIS camera: ----------------------- 1) 3km above comet: https://twitter.com/DLR_de/status/532587248555143169 https://twitter.com/DLR_de/status/532587248555143169 2) Few seconds before landing: https://twitter.com/nanotousch/status/532593372218023936 https://twitter.com/nanotousch/status/532593372218023936 3) First surface image? http://i.imgur.com/0XK8Ar4.jpg http://i.imgur.com/0XK8Ar4.jpg 4) Possibly a new image from the descent? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2QySLrCUAAZbEL.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2QySLrCUAAZbEL.jpg Edit: no, here is the source (Rosetta's NavCam from yesterday): http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/NAVCAM_top_10_at_10_km_5 http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/NAVCAM_top_1... ----------------------- Rosetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS) http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=PHILAE%20%20%20-02 http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=PHILA...

ajuc 12y ago

Wow, I listen to the solutions they invented to hibernate the probe safely - to save on the electricity they had to hibernate it, but then it could have change orientation relative to sun, and wouldn't have enough energy to wake up. So they disabled the orientation system to save energy, but first they made the probe rotate quickly to stabilise it like a gyroscope. That's stuff from sci-fi books / Mc Gyver movie :)

ommunist 12y ago

This is huge. In both technical and political ways. And bringing all the details into live online event is twice as huge. I just watched the guy reporting the unsuccessful initial anchoring of the probe, and I felt so happy that I could see this. Incredible. By the way the lander software runs on Harris RTX2010 processors -- the US contribution.

jnem 12y ago

Total non-sequitor but...I'm surprised no one else has yet made the observation that Philae Lander put together is philaender, or philander. Juvenile post of the day award anybody?

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

ITT downvoting to invisibility because you disagree with someone honestly held and cogently expressed opinions. Silencing diverse opinions is quite possibly the worst facet of HN.

TomGullen 12y ago
Libertarian world philosophy is totally bunk (if that's what you were referring to). I down vote most of that because it's generally ridiculous.
- pbhjpbhj 12y ago
  Just that opinions off the norm seem to be too readily moved to opacity -> 0. The idea that government shouldn't freely use taxation to fund projects that apparently only return a mild satiation of curiosity is a valid opinion, for example, and was apparently expressed honestly, without malice. I'm not settled on where I stand with that (I tend towards cooperative and communist ideals) but I certainly don't stand on the side of "those expressing these views need to be censured" (nor censored as it happens); which is what appears to be happening. It's possibly that I'm being over-sensitive towards the failings of the HN UI as much as anything.
- ganzuul 12y ago
  But what if you were no longer allowed to hold this particular opinion? If we generalize the postulate, it does not compute.
  - TomGullen 12y ago
    You're allowed to hold this opinion, where did I suggest you're not allowed it?

Killah911 12y ago

It is just me or has the story evolved into something a bit less jubilant in the course of the last two hours. It's an amazing feat, but this stuff is always a huge gamble. As someone's who's worked on a few spacecraft project I feel really bad for the team(s) (recently worked on one which didn't go so well, years of work down the tube). Even if it didn't go perfectly I hope they're commended for the work they've done so far & the landing they achieved.

jarmitage 12y ago

Three.js version of the comet http://cabbi.bo/rosetta/ http://cabbi.bo/rosetta/

shitlord 12y ago

Awesome! Think of all the nice desktop backgrounds I'm going to have. I am wondering what this will mean for humanity. Do you guys think the insights we gain from Philae will be as impactful as the ones from other space missions?

Cthulhu_ 12y ago
If it turns out the asteroid is full of platinum or other rare / expensive minerals, unlike the moon which seemed barren rock, it'll be enormous and the start of the true space age IMO.

JulianMorrison 12y ago

First successful unintended lithobraking in the history of space ;-P