So who is watching Philae?

[firstfloor]

The battery has a fairly short life unless the solar cells can recharge it. They are forced to take a risk.

“But the team has decided to operate another moving instrument, named Mupus, on Thursday evening. This could cause Philae to shift, but calculations show that it would be in a direction that could improve the amount of sunlight falling on the probe. A change in angle of only a few degrees could help. A new panoramic image will be taken after the Mupus deployment to see if there has been any movement.”

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...ns-esa-rosetta

[HMS_Beagle]

First photo from the surface. One leg of the lander is visible

[Cow Poke]

Which direction is skyward?

Reminds me of the courtroom scene where the attorney was demanding to know from Rooster Cogburn.....

Attorney: Mister Cogburn, what direction were you moving when you were backing up.
Cogburn: BACKWARDS! I ALWAYS move backwards when I'm backing up!

[seer]

which direction is skyward?

lol....

[Cow Poke]

Quite so. Interesting composite here: https://twitter.com/genetics_blog/st...443392/photo/1
One leg pointing skyward apparently.

Which direction is skyward?

[firstfloor]

It is still quite a feat...

Quite so. Interesting composite here: https://twitter.com/genetics_blog/st...443392/photo/1
One leg pointing skyward apparently.

[seer]

Big bounce, off target, dark place, lack of solar power, not held down, cannot drill. All in all much less successful than first thought.

It is still quite a feat...

[rogue06]

While all the cable news networks interrupted their regular coverage to report on this and a Reuters news report describes concerns that the harpoons designed to keep Philae anchored to the comet failed to deploy meaning that the lander may end up drifting off into space -- leave it to the Twitterverse and Erin Brodwin with Business Insider to hone in on the important things.

Source: Rosetta Scientist Pisses Off Twitter With A Shirt Covered In Half-Naked Women

All of humanity made history today by landing a spacecraft on a comet.

Unfortunately, many of the women following that development — and a few men, too — were made to feel pretty unwelcome in the space exploration sphere when one of the people leading the mission decided to show up to talk about it wearing a shirt covered in dozens of half-naked women.


Source

© Copyright Original Source

Yup. One of the scientists involved in the project Dr. Matt Taylor, who sports "full sleeve" tattoos and has as The Telegraph puts it, a "colourful dress sense," wore a Hawaiian shirt which has sparked outrage in some quarters.

The article in Business Insider shows some of the Tweets that includes pictures and quotes one using language unsuitable for Tweb (be forewarned) such as this from Rose Eveleth who writes:

No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt. youtube.com/watch?v=NSv6ZBZtzRA&feature=youtu.be...

00000pisseswomen.jpg

The article then continues with

Source:

Contrast the feeling you get seeing this guy in a shirt that objectifies women to this image from the Mars mission control room in India when that country launched its first orbiter to the Red Planet earlier this year.

© Copyright Original Source

And shows several Indian women celebrating.

The article finishes with

Source:

Interestingly, Taylor recently participated in a live online chat with the Wall Street Journal in which he was asked how he gained acceptance in such a respected field while sporting sleeve-length tattoos.

He responded, "The people I work with don't judge me by my looks but only by the work I have done and can do. Simple."

If only women could hope to someday be judged that way too.

We reached out to the European Space Agency for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

© Copyright Original Source

Hopefully the comment they receive from the ESA is to get a life.

[Cow Poke]

Update on CNN -- calling it a success.

Link contains video...

Source: CNN

CNN) -- This week's historic space probe landing on a comet 310 million miles from Earth wasn't exactly a poetic ballet, but it still worked.

Anchoring harpoons that were supposed to deploy when the Philae probe made impact didn't, lander manager Stephane Ulamec said Thursday.

The lander also came with screws to burrow into the surface. They didn't work either.
It made for a bouncy landing. Ulamec said Philae bounced three times before coming to a stop.

Not pretty, but still the lander came to rest on solid group. A success anyway you look at it.

© Copyright Original Source

[firstfloor]

Big bounce, off target, dark place, lack of solar power, not held down, cannot drill. All in all much less successful than first thought.

[firstfloor]

I hope, before they decide to fire the harpoons, that they take at least one picture and have a couple of sniffs to find out what kind of chemicals are there. I'm worried that if they fire the harpoons, the might bounce the probe and do something terrible.

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/comet-land...der-1657715708
“However, we are not sure about its state. It may even be upside down after bouncing not once but twice. Telemetry seems to indicate that it has landed three times.”

“The worse than optimal case scenario is that the ice screws are not secured, so they wouldn't be able to use the drill. They need to be secured to the surface for this, says ESA. The other mission objectives could be accomplished in this situation.”

[rwatts]

It's not over yet: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30026398
"But the news about the harpoons has cast a pall over the celebrations. Scientists will now take a decision on whether to re-fire them.
Scientists believe Philae was in a stable configuration when they last had contact with the probe. But they have now lost radio "visibility" and will only re-establish contact on Thursday."

I hope, before they decide to fire the harpoons, that they take at least one picture and have a couple of sniffs to find out what kind of chemicals are there. I'm worried that if they fire the harpoons, the might bounce the probe and do something terrible.

[Kelp(p)]

Now apparently the question is whether it bounced once.

[Cow Poke]

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[firstfloor]

Well I staggered out of bed at around 2:30 for the usual nightly trip. Went back to bed and tossed and turned for a bit, but had to get up and see what had happened, if anything. I was just it time to see the final confirmation come through, that it had landed. Sleep came more easily after that.

It's not over yet: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30026398
"But the news about the harpoons has cast a pall over the celebrations. Scientists will now take a decision on whether to re-fire them.
Scientists believe Philae was in a stable configuration when they last had contact with the probe. But they have now lost radio "visibility" and will only re-establish contact on Thursday."