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Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

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Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#41

Post by kuschku »

Alupis wrote: post #31
calgoo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is not enough light to power probes after a certain distance. That's why they have to use the RTG's in mission like New Horizons. There was also a shortage of the Radioactive material to make the RTGs, but that seams to be solved with NASA producing its own material.

> There was also a shortage of the Radioactive material to make the RTGs From my understanding, this shortage is caused by the lack of nuclear power facilities in the USA - which supports the GGP's point about negative political/public reactions to anything nuclear.

France has over 80% nuclear - there's no shortage of that in the EU.

But actively seperating out the required materials is the same processing step as is required for building nuclear weapons, and that's something that's a political problem, and will cost you a lot of money to prove and inspect everything every few days to ensure it's only used for civil uses.

Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#42

Post by nostrademons »

Vexs wrote: post #24

This was one of the more fun sciencey things to keep track of, and it brought space back into the media for a short time. Godspeed lil' probe. Anyway, I kind of wish people would edit this style of title to something like "It's time for me (Philae Lander) to say goodbye"

Reminds me of the days of http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/ and http://opportunitygrrl.livejournal.com/

Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#44

Post by trose »

brianpgordon wrote: post #43

I thought the Philae lander was incommunicado anyway because it landed in shadow and its batteries ran down. Shutting off the system which is supposed to communicate with it doesn't really seem like a milestone.

They definitely got it back online. It ended up getting enough sun to heat back up and get it's batteries juiced.

Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#45

Post by mind_heist »

nostrademons wrote: post #42
Vexs wrote: post #24

This was one of the more fun sciencey things to keep track of, and it brought space back into the media for a short time. Godspeed lil' probe. Anyway, I kind of wish people would edit this style of title to something like "It's time for me (Philae Lander) to say goodbye"

Reminds me of the days of http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/ and http://opportunitygrrl.livejournal.com/

Ah! thanks for this, I had no idea this existed . I have been reading Steve Squyres' - Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet for the past few months , and its pretty awesome. He gives a really wholesome perspective of what it took to get a ride to the Red Planet. I 'm going to read these journals kinda .. in parallel to the part of the book which explains post landing incidents.

Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#46

Post by mind_heist »

Its heart breaking to see these missions come to an end though they are all planned only for a few weeks in the first place. I m really glad that Philae came along this far , this was a really really complicated mission - Right from soft landing on the comet nucleus( remember the previous attempts in getting to a comet were impact probes) , loosing that one thruster prior to detaching from Rosetta , having troubles with primary & second batteries , going into safe mode , hibernating and re-awaking again , constant absence of sunlight to recharge batteries and all the delay in receiving signals back from Rosetta - This must have been one heck of an emotional ride for all the involved engineers and scientists. Mad Respect !

I m not sure if Philae conducted all the originally planned experiments or not , Would love for someone to comment on that.

And I love what message they had in the final video update, - now that they shut down the communication module of Rosetta that would talk to Philae - all those power would be used to conduct other experiments ! They managed to throw in some positivity there.

Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#48

Post by coldtea »

asxzc1 wrote: post #27
coldtea wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, science also gave us Josef Mengele. He was done with puny religious and moral concerns too.

Well there it is.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Instead of nazi analogies, how about we should not involve internet memes into discussions?

It's called a "law", but it's just a joke observation someone made. And it's not that enlightening in the first place.

Fascism was one of the most important events and currents of the 20th century. And it's full of analogies to draw and historical lessons.

If we can't draw historical analogies from the most important historical event of modern history, where should we draw them from? Ancient Rome? The Falklands war? The 1900 Paris World Expo?

Re: Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye”

#49

Post by asxzc1 »

coldtea wrote: post #48
asxzc1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there it is.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Instead of nazi analogies, how about we should not involve internet memes into discussions? It's called a "law", but it's just a joke observation someone made. And it's not that enlightening in the first place. Fascism was one of the most important events and currents of the 20th century. And it's full of analogies to draw and historical lessons. If we can't draw historical analogies from the most important historica…

Wow... please reread the title of this discussion, "Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye” . Godwin's law is pretty much the dictionary definition to your incoherent reply. The fact that you can't seem to grasp this is just sad.
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