Comet lander mission Rosetta to wake up after two years of hibernation
12 replies, posted
[img]http://imgkk.com/i/xrp3.jpg[/img]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25782249[/url]
[quote]One of the most daring space missions ever undertaken reaches a key milestone on Monday.
Europe's Rosetta probe was launched a decade ago on a long quest to chase down and land on a comet, and has spent the past two-and-half-years in hibernation to try to conserve power.
But at 10:00 GMT, an onboard "alarm clock" is expected to rouse the spacecraft from its slumber.
Rosetta will then warm its systems before sending a signal to Earth.
Receipt of this "I'm awake" message will confirm the great endeavour is still on course.
Rosetta is due to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.[/quote]
In any other circumstance, a computer sending out "I'M AWAKE" would be somewhat concerning.
I really hope this mission will succeed. It'd be so sad to have years of work of a large amount of people go to waste after many years.
I was hoping to be up at 10am refreshing for status updates, got a horrific exam to do instead :(
ESA, fuck yeah
Its already began, now we have a few hours of waiting to find out of it wakes "/
Is actually amazing when you thinking about it, for it to wake up after such a long time - find where earth is in relation to itself and then 'phone home'.
This will be exciting, I don't think there has been any closer comet mission that Deep Space One.
I would love to see some pics from the comet's surface.
Signal from Rosetta is expected in 2-3 hours from now.
[video=youtube;cHZg1y2g4Hs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHZg1y2g4Hs[/video]
Interesting the ESA spun this into a public awareness thing.
[QUOTE=Svinnik;43605256]
Interesting the ESA spun this into a public awareness thing.[/QUOTE]
That may actually good for their advantage, its a shame that NASA tries this and not many people get excited publically.
There's a livestream if anyone wants to watch it.
[url]http://www.livestream.com/eurospaceagency[/url]
Signal from Rosetta received.
[img]http://gyazo.com/023573bd0f08a91a5170160f277d882a.png[/img]
When it first spiked I didn't realise it was rosetta - it was only when people cheered 30 seconds later...
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