Can we have some more beans, Mr Taggert!
These guys need a mohawk guy.
I wondered where he was until I heard everyone’s funny accents. They did have a tattoo guy though.
They did?
That should be Dr Matt Taylor
I can’t get over how great this is: Europe landed a washing machine on a duck comet - yay!
They seem more happy than worried right now, so I guess they think the lander isn’t going to drift away from the comet.
Did you guys see this short science fiction film created in anticipation/celebration of this mission?
(Bonus: Littlefinger.)
They pretty confident the first touchdown was on a nice flat surface, but it’s clear it didn’t stay there. Now, it looks like they think they’ve figured out where it settled, but don’t want to release that info yet (?).
This first image from the surface suggests it’s up against some craggy surface/wall, possibly settled in a crater or hole. I’m guessing they have instruments that can tell it’s not on its side.
Who was at the wheel, Howard Wolowitz?
In today’s press conference they mentioned a few things (and I probably missed others), The solar panels are not providing enough power so the battery will run out in about 60 hours, although the lander is designed to wake up if the amount of light changes in the future due to the orientation of the comet relative to the Sun.
They are thinking, as a last resort measure, to twitch the landing legs to hop somewhere else if they can asses the location and attitude of the probe, by the same token firing the harpoons again is a bad idea since the recoil could be enough to send the probe careening into space.
I’m not 100% sure but some instruments seem to be working, but drilling to analyze the soil composition is out of consideration until they can see that won’t also send the probe who knows where.
I always heard comets described as “dirty snowballs”, but maybe that was one particular comet.
If they can get the drills into the the comet, they could fire the rockets a bit to turn the whole thing, comet and probe, and see if lands facing the sun.
I don’t think the lander has rockets, it had one thruster on the top which pushes it down, but that also has some challenges ( it isn’t working either) .
The landing was entirely unpowered, just a very gentle drop.
LOL … on landing it bounced 1k: top toon: 'It’s all about the bounce, the bounce, the bounce … ’
Good enough for govmint work.
Excellent photos:
I assume it had one retro rocket to slow it’s descent, but I could be wrong.
Ah, they do have a mohawk guy then. That’s cool. He’s kind of playing up the super nerd look, though. I still like our mohawk guy.
Ha! My wife says this about me – but I’m no genius, and I’m actually pretty good at parking a car.