Rosetta's Philae lander touches down on comet after 10-year quest

by Chris Velazco | @chrisvelazco | 9 hours ago November 12th 2014 11:09 am

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After Rosetta's ten year journey -- capped off with the smooth 7 hour descent of its Philae lander -- an explosion of elation went up in the European Space Agency's mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany. At around 11:04AM Eastern Time, humanity has, for the first time in history, carefully coaxed an extension of itself onto the surface of a comet. The first few moments after landing turned tense as the ESA team worked to determine if everything worked, but Philae Lander Manager Stephan Ullamec broke the strained silence.

"The harpoons have been fired and the landing gear has been moved inside. We're on the surface. Philae is talking to us, more data to come," he said. Spacecraft operations manager Andrea Accomazzo (whom the internet started calling "ESA Hoodie Guy") couldn't quite help himself.

"We can't be happier than we are now," he yelped.

Rosetta's rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko back in August was a milestone in its own right, as was how the probe slipped right into orbit around it a month later. Now that Philae has cemented itself into the history books, though, it's time for testing. Lots of it. You see, this isn't the first time humanity has come into extremely close contact with a comet -- NASA used its Deep Impact probe (no relation to the awful movie) to smash what was essentially an 820 lb camera-laden bullet into the nucleus of a comet called Tempel 1 in 2005. With an actual, operational spacecraft on the comet, we have a shot at learning even more about the origins of the solar system... not to mention how we all came to be.

The ESA has been receiving telemetry data from Philae since the moment it touched down, but we're all waiting for the first round of juicy stuff -- especially those initial panoramic and surface images -- to start making the rounds. In addition to that spacefaring photography, Philae will also measure the comet's magnetic field and gas emissions for about 60 hours before its bank of batteries runs down. And after that? It'll switch to a set of backup batteries that can be recharged by Philae's solar panels, which ESA engineers hope will last about four to five months before finally giving up the ghost. Once those cells have finally run dry, Philae will then continue to ride 67P as it careens on its six-year orbit around the solar system, another testament to human ingenuity and the curiosity that continually pushes us to cast our eyes toward the heavens.

Source: European Space Agency

Tags: Churyumov-Gerasimenko, comet, Comet 67P, ESA, EuropeanSpaceAgency, Rosetta, space, video  Hide Comments 0Comments

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Retired NASA probe brought back to life after 27 years drifting in space

BYSharif Sakr @shotsheriff17 hours ago

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The last time ISEE-3 fired its engines, Madonna was moving up the charts, the stock market was booming and President Reagan was busily denying that he'd secretly sold weapons to Iran. After that final gasp from its thrusters, in February 1987, the International Sun-Earth Explorer probe would have drifted into permanent retirement -- if a $150,000 crowdfunded project hadn't come along to save it at the last minute. That project has just scored it first big success, by remotely reawakening the 36-year-old craft's engines and altering its course in order to make it easier to communicate with. Keith Cowing, who's co-leading the private group in charge of the resurrection, blogged that it was "all in all, a very good day." If the next steps go equally well, the idea is to reconfigure ISEE-3's onboard computers and sensors so that they can be used for a bit of citizen science during remaining two-month, four million-mile journey back to earth.

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Via: Scientific American

Source: Space College

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Dreamworks CEO believes films will be ready to buy 3 weeks after hitting cinemas

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onBreak({980: function () {htmlAdWH("93308280", "215", "35",'AJAX','ajaxsponsor');}});Dreamworks CEO believes films will be ready to buy 3 weeks after hitting cinemasBYDaniel Cooper @danielwcooper4 days ago 0

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the man who revived Disney's animation studios before co-founding Dreamworks, knows a thing or two about Hollywood revolutions. He believes that, if cinema is going to survive against its rival mediums, then the way films are sold is going to have to change in a big way. Since most movies make the bulk of their money within the first three weekends in cinemas, the executive believes that the release window will be limited to that 17-day period. After which point, digital distribution will enable the content to be available on every platform, all at the same time. Another one of his predictions, although one that's slightly less plausible, is that studios will charge users different prices depending on the screen size they use -- letting customers watch a movie for $2 on a phone, but $4 on an HDTV. If that system was implemented, we're fairly sure that everyone with an eye for a bargain would simply invest in an MHL cable.

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Via: The Verge, Fast Company

Source: Variety

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Intel's SD card-sized computer may not be so tiny after all

Back at CES, Intel made a big deal of the fact that it could squeeze a Linux-based PC with Bluetooth and WiFi into the size and shape of an SD card. However, with just a few months to go before the launch of these miniscule Edison development boards, it looks like the chip-maker has changed tack. Instead of being based on the Quark SoC, which was specifically designed for wearables and the Internet of Things, the first Edison products will actually rely on a more traditional Atom chip--in other words, the same sort used many current Windows tablets and hybrids. An Edison PC based on Atom should deliver more grunt and connectivity options compared to Quark, and for less money, but itd be too chubby to ever get accidentally jammed in an SD slot. Thats why Intel has been forced to admit that, while it continues to work on Quark, the Edison devices coming this summer will be "slightly larger" than was first claimed.

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Via: Bit-tech

Source: Intel

Tags: atom, chip, edison, intel, iot, linux, quark, soc, wearables Next: Ultrakam lets your iPhone capture higher resolution film-like video clips. fire. fire-comment-divider

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