Rosetta Comet Landing LANDED: BATTERY LOW! DANGER!

[iup=3614765]Karl[/iup] wrote:Latest update seems to be that they're going to use the springs in the lander's legs to "jump" into an area with more light. I hope it goes well and we can continue to talk to Philae for a while!

I hope so!

[iup=3614749]Fuzzy Dunlop[/iup] wrote:Seems the comet is also singing, some mysterious old school techno music or something:

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/11/the-singing-comet/

It's interesting but there's a fairly mundane explanation behind it.

Social Justice Warriors strike again:

One of the leading scientists on the Rosetta Project gave a string of TV interviews in a shirt emblazoned with half-dressed women. The angry reaction online spawned two hashtags, spoof images and has now led to a tearful apology as well.

The eyes of the world were focussed on Matt Taylor this week. The British scientist involved in the Rosetta Project - to land a spacecraft on a comet - was at the heart of media coverage of the event. And so was his shirt. On Wednesday he appeared in front of the cameras wearing a bespoke short-sleeved number, plastered in bright cartoon images of scantily-clad women.

People on Twitter were not amused. "Women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt," tweeted a female tech journalist, sarcastically. She was sent abusive tweets in response. Science is seen by many as a male dominated world, and so the shirt only reinforces the notion that women aren't accepted on equal footing, claimed his critics. "For clarity -- No, the shirt is not "cool" or acceptable in a professional setting - on an engineer, scientist, or anyone," tweeted another user.

The hashtags #ShirtGate and #ShirtStorm appeared, and have been used more than 3,500 times. South African cosmologist Renée Hložek wrote a blog addressed to budding female scientists: "Yes, you are capable of being taken seriously," she wrote.

Pressure mounted on Taylor to apologise, while others lightened the mood by spoofing the photo. "Fixed it," claimed one tweeter, who posted a new image showing famous female scientists photoshopped onto the shirt. That image alone has been shared more than 2,700 times on Twitter.

The scientist wasn't without his sympathisers, however. "Poor Dr Matt Taylor. He landed on a comet and the only thing people seem to talk about are his tattoos and his shirt," wrote one.

BBC Trending contacted Taylor for comment but has not heard back. The outcry has evidently hit him hard though. During a press briefing this morning, he broke down in tears and apologised for his choice of clothes. "The shirt I wore this week, I made a big mistake and I offended many people," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-30055278

Also:

The circus is fuelled by far-Left bloggers such as The Verge's Chris Plante, formerly a cofounder of games news site Polygon. Both sites have been implicated in a collusion scandal recently. Plante was responsible for the post about Taylor's shirt that kick-started the absurd spectacle that followed. His post was titled: "I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing." This, from a tech writer.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Lond ... -is-sexist

Yep - those liberal progressive bullies at Polygon at it - yet again.

He shouldn't have worn that shirt, because it looks ridiculous. Not sexist, just gooseberry fool.

Matt Taylor is trying way too hard to be the 'cool scientist guy' and it's come back to bite him on the arse. All in all considering what's actually happening here it's a pretty nothing story.

Can we please not turn what should be a very interesting science-based topic into an argument about the age old battle between ~~Assassins and Templars~~ the Left and Right. It will just derail the topic.

Criticism of the project or an issue surrounding is fine; using this to push a political agenda or turn it into the Politics Thread MK 2 isn't. No one wants to read words like "liberal bullies" here or have it turn into a political argument.

Don't be a liberal bully Parksey.

This has been shut down now apparently, what a disappointment.

I really hope they manage to transfer human consciousness into machines before i die. Would love to get my brain put into a near-immortal robot and travel the galaxy...

[iup=3615384]1cmanny1[/iup] wrote:This has been shut down now apparently, what a disappointment.

It's kind of sad that you think that. The lander was genuinely a huge success and managed to transmit back its whole payload of data before going idle. It would have been nice to keep it on so we could have more photos and so forth, but it's likely to reawaken in 2015, so we can always have a go at moving it to a sunnier spot then. In the meantime, the data we gathered will keep scientists busy for years.

At least 80% of the mission's objectives were completed. It has been a real success.

Plus the fact that something we made managed to land on a comet is pretty amazing. It was probably made with really outdated tech from the 90's as well. It was launched over 10 years ago from memory, would've been in development before that.

Yes but it ran out of power. I am not saying nothing was achieved, I said it was a disappointment.

[iup=3615617]SquintyMcSquint[/iup] wrote:Plus the fact that something we made managed to land on a comet is pretty amazing. It was probably made with really outdated tech from the 90's as well. It was launched over 10 years ago from memory, would've been in development before that.

I think I read somewhere that the project has been 25 years in the making so that would mean it was made using 70's/80's tech. Incredible really.

[iup=3615620]1cmanny1[/iup] wrote:Yes but it ran out of power. I am not saying nothing was achieved, I said it was a disappointment.

In your opinion perhaps, but from the scientists point of view it's been a huge success.

So, what exactly were they hoping to find out with all the data they have collected? I am assuming traces of amino acids and other organic compounds would be a real win as it would help further our knowledge of the origins of life.

I'm pretty sure that we will never being able to recreate the genesis of life in a lab though, not because it is impossible but because of the time scale required. The transforming of primitive organic molecules into the first living cells probably took upward of millions of years so no human scientist has a hope of replicating the process. Still, that doesn't mean we could not nail down the theoretical basis.

[iup=3615675]Meep[/iup] wrote:So, what exactly were they hoping to find out with all the data they have collected?

What the structure and make-up of the comet is, what organic compounds are present and in what form, any presumably anything that might help better understand the solar system's origins.

[iup=3615636]Doug[/iup] wrote:
[iup=3615617]SquintyMcSquint[/iup] wrote:Plus the fact that something we made managed to land on a comet is pretty amazing. It was probably made with really outdated tech from the 90's as well. It was launched over 10 years ago from memory, would've been in development before that.

I think I read somewhere that the project has been 25 years in the making so that would mean it was made using 70's/80's tech. Incredible really.

You could be right. I remember reading that these things are usually built with a more conservative approach (proven technologies).

It must be said, they still the Rosetta satellite around the comet. It's just the Philae lander that has powered down. Not really a waste or disappointment. And there's every chance the thing could still power itself.

I think there's a really good chance Philae will come online again at some point in the next two years. It's getting some light to its main solar panels, and it's due to come much closer to the Sun, and there's every chance some shift in the surface may increase the amount of light it receives too.

Why did they pick that comet to land on?

[iup=3615797]Dual[/iup] wrote:Why did they pick that comet to land on?

Probably because it was traveling in the desired trajectory and was large enough to be stable enough to land on.

Rosetta Comet Landing LANDED: BATTERY LOW! DANGER!

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