Philae
Public
Well, it looks as though things went well enough this evening that a decent amount of data did make it back to base! Nobody really knows whether the batteries (which are now basically exhausted) will recharge enough tomorrow to allow one more contact, but we'll see. Even if they don't, this has been a brilliant mission -- and of course the Rosetta part still has months to run -- and I'm delighted that it's done as well as it has. Space is hard, and getting this far has been wonderful.
Another thing that's been fascinating (even if I don't understand most of it) has been the live telemetry feed. Plenty of other telemetry too, and from what I read from scientists online, we're lucky it was an ESA mission. Apparently, had it been operated by NASA, the American ITAR regulations would have prevented some of the telemetry we've seen posted live from being made public! Now that's just silly, guys.
Well, it looks as though things went well enough this evening that a decent amount of data did make it back to base! Nobody really knows whether the batteries (which are now basically exhausted) will recharge enough tomorrow to allow one more contact, but we'll see. Even if they don't, this has been a brilliant mission -- and of course the Rosetta part still has months to run -- and I'm delighted that it's done as well as it has. Space is hard, and getting this far has been wonderful.
Another thing that's been fascinating (even if I don't understand most of it) has been the live telemetry feed. Plenty of other telemetry too, and from what I read from scientists online, we're lucky it was an ESA mission. Apparently, had it been operated by NASA, the American ITAR regulations would have prevented some of the telemetry we've seen posted live from being made public! Now that's just silly, guys.