LOL, personally, I'd never say that. Dress is a triviality to me. But the comment made me laugh and I just throw it in for the levity. :-)
Posted on 11/11/2014 10:03:25 PM PST by BenLurkin
We are now in the final hours before Rosetta’s Philae lander is released to attempt a first-ever landing on a comet. At 9:03 GMT (1:03 AM PST) on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, Philae will be released and directed towards the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko....
Rosetta’s and Philae’s software and hardware must work near flawlessly to give Philae the best chance possible of landing safely. And even with flawless execution, it all depends on Philae’s intercepting a good landing spot on the surface. Philae’s trajectory is ballistic on this one way trip to a comet’s surface. It’s like a 1 mile per hour bullet. Once fired, it’s on its own, and for Philae, its trajectory could lead to a pristine flat step or it could be crevasse, ledge, or sharp rock.
...
The gravity field of the comet is so weak, it is primarily the initial velocity from Rosetta that delivers Philae to the surface. But the gravity is there and because of the chaotic shape and unknown (as yet) mass distribution inside, the gravity will make Philae move like a major league knuckleball wobbling to the plate and a batter. Furthermore, the comet during the seven hour trip will make half a rotation. The landing site will not be in site when Philae is released.
And as Philae is on final approach, it will use a small rocket not to slow down but rather thrust it at the comet, landing harpoons will be fired, foot screws will try to burrow into the comet, and everyone on Earth will wait several minutes for a message to be relayed from Philae to Rosetta to the Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas on Earth. Philae will be on its own as soon as it leaves Rosetta and its fate is a few hours away
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Yes, they’ve accomplished something pretty spectacular, imho. I’m impressed. I follow several space missions, fascinated by what’s out there, but this one’s really excited me. I hope Philae can land on that lumpy piece of rock without breaking apart. It’ll be interesting to see what they learn about it.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This news doesn’t sound good at all.
I closed out the web site because I didn’t expect any more news for a bit and it’s about time to head to bed. Now I’ll have to pull it back up to find out what’s going on. So much for sleep. LOL!
LOL, personally, I'd never say that. Dress is a triviality to me. But the comment made me laugh and I just throw it in for the levity. :-)
I thought I saw a guy wearing shorts or maybe a kilt. I sometimes wear a kilt but wouldn’t to something like this event.
And those high back chairs kinda bug me. Don’t know why, they just seem odd.
It IS amazing and it blows me away. I wasn’t sure they could pull this one off and even meet up with the comet. But they got there and it’s really going to suck pond water if this last step doesn’t work.
I can't see him thinking well ok today's the day, broadcast live on the internet all over the world, let me wear my hot wings and bowling shirt.
Of course he could be totally cool and did that to win a bet.
Fixing tagline
The lander has no engines. It was designed for a ballistic trajectory to the comet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_(spacecraft)
“The lander is designed to deploy from the main spacecraft body and descend from an orbit of 22.5 kilometres (14 mi) along a ballistic trajectory.[15] It will touch down on the comet’s surface at a velocity of around 1 metre per second (3.6 km/h; 2.2 mph).[16] The legs are designed to dampen the initial impact to avoid bouncing as the comet’s escape velocity is only around 0.5 m/s (1.8 km/h; 1.1 mph),[17] and the impact energy drives ice screws into the surface.[18] Philae will then fire two harpoons into the surface at 70 m/s (250 km/h; 160 mph) to anchor itself.[19][20]”
But it does have a cold gas thruster system to keep it from bouncing off the comet.
Yup, they couldn’t get that to prime and last I heard it was inoperative. For those harpoons to work the surface better be relatively soft. If it’s really hard rock/metal...that could be a big problem.
Some coverage on the science channel as well. I think that starts at 2 this afternoon.
Down, landed, everybody is clapping!
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