Alone and Confused, Philae Breaks our Hearts [laughably maudlin Millenials]

universetoday.com ^ | on November 16, 2014 | Morgan Rehnberg

[BenLurkin]

I was thirteen years old when Columbia disintegrated. Space exploration was not even a particular interest of mine at the time, but I remember exactly where I was when the news came. My dad and I were sitting in the living room of my childhood home, listening to NPR. I don’t really recall how I felt when they broke into our program with the news, but I remember well the two emotions that seemed to permeate the coverage that soon become constant: confusion and sadness. As I watched the almost surreal saga of ESA’s Philae this week, I found my mind wandering back to that day eleven years ago. That confusion rang out was hardly surprising; after all, things weren’t going right and we didn’t know why. But it was the sadness, I think, that drew my mind into the past. Many of the countless people watching Philae’s distress unfold before us weren’t merely disappointed that a decades-in-the-making experiment wasn’t going as planned. The word heartbroken kept springing to mind.

[madprof98]

Kinda like the Obama presidency.

[BenLurkin]

The questions in my mind are numerous. What’s the cause of this inequity? Why do we seem to latch onto certain spacecraft and blithely ignore others?

[cripplecreek]

This stuff is hard.

The orbiter is still there and will likely provide the best science anyway.

[BenLurkin]

Good point. Maybe it is some kind of psychological transference by the millennial dopes who bought into Hussein’s con.

[cripplecreek]

Why do we seem to latch onto certain spacecraft and blithely ignore others?

I don't follow every spacecraft in operation but I do follow a lot of them. I keep a moderate eye on the Mars missions but my primary interests these days are on New Horizons, Dawn, and Juno.

[FrdmLvr]

Morgan Renberg. The generation with the weird names is coming of age.

[BenLurkin]

Understood. But this guy means emotionally. He is seriously claiming an emotional attachment to it!

[Jack Hydrazine]

Here’s the giveaway to the whole article:

“My dad and I were sitting in the living room of my childhood home, listening to NPR.”

[cripplecreek]

I am disappointed with failures but becoming emotionally involved is a little ridiculous.

[BenLurkin]

Yup!

[BenLurkin]

And, it all pales in comparison to the way China’s Yutu rover signed off when it looked like a malfunction might cause it to freeze to death on the Moon (original Chinese, CNN translation):

… my masters discovered something abnormal with my mechanical control system. …I’m aware that I might not survive this lunar night…

The sun has fallen, and the temperature is dropping so quickly… to tell you all a secret, I don’t feel that sad. I was just in my own adventure story – and like every hero, I encountered a small problem.

Goodnight, Earth. Goodnight, humanity.

Talk about heartbreaking.

[SunkenCiv]

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL IT DOPE tv Commercial 1970?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9_33Y_hlsI

[GeronL]

exactly

[Calvin Locke]

Some provide a "thrill", while other don't?

You can look up articles on how humdrum Mars missions languished for years in public obscurity after one of the Mariners took away the Mars mystique in popular culture by revealing that there isn't all that much there to stoke the public's imagination.

[rdl6989]

My dad and I were sitting in the living room of my childhood home, listening to NPR.

I stopped right there since I'm out of barf bags at the moment.

[GeronL]

I was thirteen years old when the Challenger exploded. Space exploration was very much an interest of mine and I remember exactly where I was when it happened.

At school in a nearly empty room, planned as the future library, with a small select group of other students watching the launch live.

The explosion was sad. Sad for the astronauts and sad for the set-back of the manned space program. We were all shunted back to our classes minutes after this explosion. We were not offered counseling or anything like kids are these days when they did’t win the top 9 ribbons in a trivial contest.

Philae, like other missions, tell us a lot. Failures are very educational. We learn from them and do better next time. We shouldn’t waste time crying about exploded unmanned objects, we should figure out the problem and design it better for next time.

There is no room for temper tantrums in science and in space nobody can hear you whine like an entitled trust-fund brat who just found out his ski vacation in Aspen is off because the snow is too thin.

Philae is still there, flying along with the comet and returning images and will probably be able to do some science too. There was a bit of a set-back but that doesn’t mean we cannot learn from it.

Although emotionally it makes me want to reach out and ‘touch’ the face of Morgan.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Of course a liberal would be equate loss of technological success (Philae) with loss of human life (Challenger).

[Calvin Locke]

Yeah, well, unfortunately, Philae ended up setting down in nearly the next-to-worst place possible, and it was doing the drilling.

Maybe they should have engaged Bruce Willis as a cheerleader for mission?

Did the GGG claim another?

[MUDDOG]

Young man, there’s no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A.
I’m sure they can help you today.