Anyone else excited about this Rosetta comet probe?

The toaster-sized probe (Philae) is due to separate from the main craft (Rosetta) at 9:03 GMT/UTC (4:03 am EST) Wednesday. Landing will be at 4.02pm GMT/UTC or 11:02am EST.

Could be very interesting. The probe had some power-up issues but appears to be working fine now.

It’s bigger than a toaster–1 meter by 1 meter by 0.8 meters; I’ve seen it described as being “the size of a washing machine”.

But definitely cool, yes.

Wikipedia article on the Philae probe, and official ESA web page for the Rosetta mission.

I could have sworn I heard toaster on the radio this morning. Must be for large bread slices. :wink:

Well, y’all’s toasters are different.

The Guardian newspaper (from UK) has a live blog following events. It is a fairly decent newspaper so the livestream should be reasonable

I have been watching it here

The Philae lander has separated from Rosetta and is on its way to the comet. A communication link has been established between the two. Touchdown is still a few hours away.

xkcd.com is doing it live, and apparently self-updating the comic.

[QUOTE=Leaffan]
I could have sworn I heard toaster on the radio this morning. Must be for large bread slices.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe if you round it up? :slight_smile:

Astronomy Picture of the Day has some info too.

Anyone else get into a “makes it/crashes” bet with a friend? I’m betting makes.

The photo gallery is amazing.

Can’t wait (and fingers crossed) for the pictures from the surface.

I’m watching the live stream, with just over an hour until landing. The joy on their faces has put a huge smile on mine. I am in awe of this project, and also of the fact that I can watch it unfold live.

I’m surprised we don’t have pictures of the lander leaving the orbiter.

They put up one raw picture about 20 minutes ago.

Pictures of the lander just this instant on the live broadcast.

I’m almost forgetting I just had two wisdom teeth pulled a couple hours ago. :smiley:

XKCD has a “live” comic dealing with the landing. xkcd: Landing

I’ve got that streaming at work, but I had to walk away to talk to someone for a few minutes.

I’ve got that ‘streaming’ too. In fact, when I woke up this morning and checked XKCD, since it’s Wednesday, it’s how I found out about all this. In fact, I’m using XKCD as my countdown, so I know when I really have to be paying attention.

ETA 40 minutes.

I just noticed that when the live feed drops and they go back to that empty room, there’s three computer monitors in the bottom left and a mechanical arm with a camera attached taking a selfie (I assume someone is watching those monitors from somewhere else).