Live coverage here http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220000361.html<p>Thanks @brianpgordon - Check out this gif of the orbital maneuvers required for Rosetta to reach its destination: https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif<p>Live twitter feed of ESA https://twitter.com/esaoperations<p>It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding
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.<p>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!<p>[1] <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46048-programme-overview" rel="nofollow">http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46048-programme-overview</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_overview2" rel="nofollow">http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo_...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://aas.org/meetings/dps46" rel="nofollow">http://aas.org/meetings/dps46</a>
First images from Philae's ROLIS camera:<p>-----------------------<p>1) 3km above comet:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/DLR_de/status/532587248555143169" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/DLR_de/status/532587248555143169</a><p>2) Few seconds before landing:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/nanotousch/status/532593372218023936" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/nanotousch/status/532593372218023936</a><p>3) First surface image?<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/0XK8Ar4.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/0XK8Ar4.jpg</a><p>4) Possibly a new image from the descent?<p><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2QySLrCUAAZbEL.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2QySLrCUAAZbEL.jpg</a><p>Edit: no, here is the source (Rosetta's NavCam from yesterday):<p><a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/NAVCAM_top_10_at_10_km_5" rel="nofollow">http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/NAVCAM_top_1...</a><p>-----------------------<p>Rosetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS)<p><a href="http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=PHILAE%20%20%20-02" rel="nofollow">http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/experimentDisplay.do?id=PHILA...</a>
<p><pre><code> More analysis of @Philae2014 telemetry
indicates harpoons did not fire as 1st thought
</code></pre>
Ouch, seems like it didn't land? <a href="https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440</a><p><i>edit</i> - the landing is confirmed, however the harpoons did not fire: <a href="https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532579871202238464</a>
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.<p>I'm really curious to know how different it is from the web or enterprise development worlds.
Coverage of this has been very confusing.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
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.<p>So they disabled the orientation system to save energy, but first they made the probe rotate quickly to stabilise it like a gyroscope.<p>That's stuff from sci-fi books / Mc Gyver movie :)
Live streaming of the event here <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220000361.html" rel="nofollow">http://news.yahoo.com/video/abc-news-plus-special-report-220...</a><p>Thanks @brianpgordon - Check out this gif of the orbital maneuvers required for Rosetta to reach its destination:
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/TUkKuhf.gif</a><p>Live twitter feed of ESA <a href="https://twitter.com/esaoperations" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/esaoperations</a><p>It looks like @Philae2014 made a fairly gentle touch down on #67P based on amount of landing gear damping #CometLanding
For anyone who wants to see how they got there<p><a href="http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/" rel="nofollow">http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/</a><p>pretty mind blowing for me to plan ahead 10 years
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?<p>Edit: Thanks for all the replies! I'm at work now but will take a look at them this evening.
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.<p>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.
I highly recommend this video that explains how Philae works:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77-Z_DHTlY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77-Z_DHTlY</a>
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?
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.<p>Still can't believe ESA planned and landed a robot on a comet. Bravo!
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.
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?
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.
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?
Awesome! Think of all the nice desktop backgrounds I'm going to have.<p>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?
"Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership"<p>To me, no other statement could be more impacting. Earth is finally sending motherships to space. <i>feeling mind-boggled</i>
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...
ITT downvoting to invisibility because you disagree with someone honestly held and cogently expressed opinions.<p>Silencing diverse opinions is quite possibly the worst facet of HN.