Philae/ Rosetta Has Landed!

[Maraio1]

Wow. They've done it! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30026398

 

Not sure if it's Tech, but it's really cool!

Hopefully it does some useful experiments and gives us some more data about the comet and water and how life was formed.

Just to say, it's 6.4 Billion KM away.... And took 10 years to get there... 

[Sky Daddy]

how many kerbels did the mission take?

[Pugs501]

how many kerbels did the mission take?

[Maraio1]

how many kerbels did the mission take?

None, they've used the Stayputnik!

[SeanAngelo]

my college teacher was talking about this, its pretty cool actually.

 

10 years for it to reach, imagine all the maths that had to be done!

[Carpenoctem]

You can see the travel here, cool stuffs

 

http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/

[Maraio1]

my college teacher was talking about this, its pretty cool actually.

 

10 years for it to reach, imagine all the maths that had to be done!

And it was like thought of way before then, like 1985 or something like that. So trying to work out it's trajectory 10-15 years in advance must have been super complex. Well it paid off.

[juretrn]

The signal broke a seven-hour wait of agonising intensity and sparked scenes of jubilation at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt. The team in charge of the Rosetta mission had achieved what at times seemed an impossible task by landing a robotic spacecraft on a comet for the first time in history.

The safe landing gives scientists their first chance in history to ride a comet and study close up what happens as its activity ramps up as it gets closer to the sun.

The feat marks a profound success for ESA, which launched the Rosetta spacecraft more than 10 years ago from its Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Since blasting off in March 2004, Rosetta and its lander Philae have travelled more than six billion kilometres to catch up with the comet which orbits the sun at speeds up to 135,000km/h.

The moment came shortly after 1600 GMT when Philae called home. It had fired harpoons to secure itself on the comet and twisted in ice screws fitted to its feet. “We are there, we are sitting on the surface,” said a jubilant Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the DLR German Space Centre.

Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta flight operations director, said: “We cannot be happier than we are now.”