Hatch Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 amazing stuff what they have achieved here , but I can't get my head around this How are we getting the pictures back instantly? Shouldn't it take days or weeks or whatever to arrive seeing as it is so far away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 amazing stuff what they have achieved here , but I can't get my head around this How are we getting the pictures back instantly? Shouldn't it take days or weeks or whatever to arrive seeing as it is so far away. 25 minutes isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 Its a hoax innit? and a conspiracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutch Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 It's absolutely farking mind-boggling what they've done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 amazing stuff what they have achieved here , but I can't get my head around this How are we getting the pictures back instantly? Shouldn't it take days or weeks or whatever to arrive seeing as it is so far away. 25 minutes isn't it? Approx 317 million miles divided by the speed of transmission ( = the speed of light ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 It's absolutely farking mind-boggling what they've done. One of the comments on the BBC; "We can land a probe on a comet after travelling 6 billion miles in ten years, yet some people can't park inside the lines on a car park". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DS Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 It isn't instant; transmission back takes about 24 minutes. I believe the signals are sent on radio waves. Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light in a vacuum (i.e. in space). If you wanted to send a radio wave to the Sun it would take about 8 minutes. Because the comet's distance from Earth is currently almost three times the distance from the Sun to the Earth it means signals the take around 3*8 minutes to get from the comet to here. The whole thing mission is incredible and mind boggling really. It really is an amazing achievement. Lots of good info (and pics) here for those interested: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/ Also some good info on the comet's position here: http://www.livecometdata.com/comets/67p-churyumov-gerasimenko/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sour Mash Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 Amazing effort, even more so when you consider when it was designed, built and launched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 (edited) It makes you realise just how unbelievably small we are / vast the universe is. Its taken man 10 years to travel part way across one star's solar system. Yet there are 70 thousand million million million (70 sextillion or 7 × 1022) stars in the Universe. Source: http://www.rmg.co.uk/...many-stars...many-stars/galaxies-in-the-universe Edited 13 November, 2014 by buctootim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutch Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 It makes you realise just how unbelievably small we are / vast the universe is. Its taken man 10 years to travel part way across one star's solar system. Yet there are 70 thousand million million million (70 sextillion or 7 × 1022) stars in the Universe. Source: http://www.rmg.co.uk/...many-stars...many-stars/galaxies-in-the-universe Yeah, but I expect they used satnav. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huffton Posted 13 November, 2014 Share Posted 13 November, 2014 Can't be that difficult if Bruce Willis can manage it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 14 November, 2014 Share Posted 14 November, 2014 I used to go out with the sister of Bruce Willis' pilot. Top tenuous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Boy Saint Posted 14 November, 2014 Share Posted 14 November, 2014 That is amazing to land a probe on a moving object absolutely miles from Earth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Bateman Posted 14 November, 2014 Share Posted 14 November, 2014 amazing stuff what they have achieved here , but I can't get my head around this How are we getting the pictures back instantly? Shouldn't it take days or weeks or whatever to arrive seeing as it is so far away. I find it amazing - isn't the comet travelling at something like 34,000 mph as well? Brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Balls Posted 14 November, 2014 Share Posted 14 November, 2014 What a time to be alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SO16_Saint Posted 14 November, 2014 Share Posted 14 November, 2014 300 million miles away (or something like that); travelling at 34,000 KPH; 24 minute time delay in transmission, 10 year mission, 25 years in the planning... Wonder how much money has been spent on this. I still dont understand WHY it's been done, but what they have done is incredible. BUT - in a day and age like this, we still cant have an x-ray where the person taking the xray $hits himself and stands behind a glass wall everytime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted 14 November, 2014 Share Posted 14 November, 2014 I used to go out with the sister of Bruce Willis' pilot. Top tenuous. Talking of tenuous connections, I met a lady at a conference yesterday who is the daughter of the late Colin Pillinger, the driving force behind the Beagle 2 mission and a leading scientist in the Rosetta project. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27322166 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy_D Posted 15 November, 2014 Share Posted 15 November, 2014 All experiments for first science phase completed and all data returned, almost a complete success in terms of initial goals for the lander Cost ended up being about 20p per person that paid tax towards it per year (so about £4 per tax payer in total for this mission). Seems pretty reasonable to me! One snag seems to be that one of the experiments to help determine the composition of the comet (APXS), the shutter on it failed to open, so it only returned data about the composition of the shutter. They found that the lander was (contrary to what was initially thought) actually sat on all three lander legs. This let the drill return a sample from the surface, and experiments (COSAC and Ptolemy) ran on both that and samples from the thin dust in the space floating above the surface of the comet, so that should be enough to determine the composition. Almost perfect in terms of power budget from the initial battery to get all that done, they used remaining power to run the CONSERT experiment again, data from that should allow them to triangulate where on the comet Philae ended up. They've shifted it slightly to try and improve the solar power generation, and as it gets closer to the sun it might get more solar power, so we might get some bonus data running stuff again (maybe even get APXS working properly), but even if that's it, it's already an incredible success. The Russians were the first to get into space, the USA were the first to land on the moon, Europe are the first to land on a comet. I've always wondered what it must have been like, seeing the moon landings, realizing new ground was being broken. I've had a little taste of that now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farawaysaint Posted 15 November, 2014 Share Posted 15 November, 2014 WTF? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/11232986/Matt-Taylors-sexist-shirt-and-the-day-political-correctness-officially-went-mad.html We land a spaceship on a comet and people are attacking the man's shirt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horley CTFC Saint Posted 15 November, 2014 Share Posted 15 November, 2014 I've always wondered what it must have been like, seeing the moon landings, realizing new ground was being broken. I've had a little taste of that now No comparison really though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colinjb Posted 15 November, 2014 Share Posted 15 November, 2014 No comparison really though There really is. It may not have the glamour but landing on a comet is just crazy brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horley CTFC Saint Posted 16 November, 2014 Share Posted 16 November, 2014 There really is. It may not have the glamour but landing on a comet is just crazy brilliant. How does it compare to your experience of the Moon landings then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecuk268 Posted 16 November, 2014 Share Posted 16 November, 2014 How does it compare to your experience of the Moon landings then? I was 19 in July '69. I decided to make a bed on my mum's sofa so that I could watch the moment on our black and white TV when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. It must have been around 2 or 3 in the morning when it happened and I managed to get a few hours sleep afterwards. I'll never forget it. I loved the Apollo years with James Burke and Patrick Moore commentating on the live BBC coverage. Unfortunately, the US public quickly got bored of space travel and NASA couldn't secure the funds to continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horley CTFC Saint Posted 16 November, 2014 Share Posted 16 November, 2014 I was 19 in July '69. I decided to make a bed on my mum's sofa so that I could watch the moment on our black and white TV when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. It must have been around 2 or 3 in the morning when it happened and I managed to get a few hours sleep afterwards. I'll never forget it. I loved the Apollo years with James Burke and Patrick Moore commentating on the live BBC coverage. Unfortunately, the US public quickly got bored of space travel and NASA couldn't secure the funds to continue. I was only 11 and watched it live too - I had it at about 4 in the morning but whatever it was early! Something of a life changer in many ways too. Drawn into it all by my big brother who's the scientist in our family but will be forever grateful for that as it fuelled a lifelong interes.t in the Cosmos and space exploration. It was gutting at the time how quickly the public lost interest in the whole programme with only the prospect of three astronauts frying on Apollo 13 seemingly temporarily fuelling greater interest in the later Apollos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_O_Z Posted 17 November, 2014 Share Posted 17 November, 2014 It makes you realise just how unbelievably small we are / vast the universe is. Its taken man 10 years to travel part way across one star's solar system. Yet there are 70 thousand million million million (70 sextillion or 7 × 1022) stars in the Universe. Source: http://www.rmg.co.uk/...many-stars...many-stars/galaxies-in-the-universe And possibly an infinite number of universes, if you agree with the theory of inflation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted 23 November, 2014 Share Posted 23 November, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 14 June, 2015 Share Posted 14 June, 2015 Philae has woken up, Hello Earth! Can you hear me? #WakeUpPhilae Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted 14 June, 2015 Share Posted 14 June, 2015 (edited) And possibly an infinite number of universes, if you agree with the theory of inflation I thought it was more than that. Edited 14 June, 2015 by Whitey Grandad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy_D Posted 14 June, 2015 Share Posted 14 June, 2015 Philae has woken up, Hello Earth! Can you hear me? #WakeUpPhilae Amazing news Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutch Posted 14 June, 2015 Share Posted 14 June, 2015 I reckon somebody switched it on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted 14 June, 2015 Share Posted 14 June, 2015 I reckon somebody switched it on Little green man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huffton Posted 14 June, 2015 Share Posted 14 June, 2015 I reckon somebody switched it on Nah, its just been installing the latest Windows updates:uhoh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsdinho Posted 19 June, 2015 Share Posted 19 June, 2015 And possibly an infinite number of universes, if you agree with the theory of inflation Don't you mean the multiverse theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horley CTFC Saint Posted 19 June, 2015 Share Posted 19 June, 2015 Little green man. Now that's what I call an away game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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