A lot of people I have talked to lately have been all oh, we landed on a comet. Woo. ... and then they move on. I just... wha... you truly dont understand what just happened, do you? I cant express how momentous of an achievement that this is. The Rosetta space craft was launched from this planet in March 2004, her mission to catch, orbit, and land on comet 67P/G-C. Rosetta flew out into deep space so far that it was able to take pictures of both the Moon and Earth in the same image. Rosetta came back, using Earths gravity to speed the craft up and again returned out to the stars. Between 2005 and 2009 Rosetta returned to Earth three times on its long journey. 2006 Rosetta was hit by a solar flare. In 2007 Rosetta came with 160 miles of Mars, another slingshot maneuver; in the vastness of space 160 miles is insanely close. Rosetta flew by several asteroids for study, coming within 500 miles of asteroid Steins, and witnessed the deep impact mission of comet Tempel 1. In 2010 Rosetta flew by asteroid 21 Lutetia. Then, finally, in 2011 Rosetta was put to sleep, shutdown into a hibernation mode where it remained until reawakened this year in January, 2014, and on August 6 became the first man made object to orbit a comet. November 12 Rosettas lander, Philae, landed on the surface of 67P. 10 years, 8 months in space. 3.9 billion miles traveled. 4 planetary flybys. Mathematical calculations I can scarcely begin to understand that worked, reworked, and reworked again with the soul intent of gaining a deeper understanding of how this solar system, how life on this planet, began. An idea thats heart can be traced back to the 1986 visit of Halleys Comet. A mission like so many others full of complexity and could fail so easily but reached farther than any before. The video posted below, titled Ambition, was created at the behest of the European Space Agency to express the power and enormity of this mission. People always ask why I find astronomy and space flight so exciting; because this video, the action that occurs, thats what goes on in my head every time I read about what NASA, the ESA, anyone, does when they push the boundaries of science and exploration. I see the passion and the energy that so many people invest into these projects time and time again. I imagine the journey in my mind that the spacecraft took. I consider what I did over the past 10 years and all the while this one, singular event has transpired. I consider the past 20 years when the heart of Rosetta truly took shape in the mind of man and one of us was brave enough, ambitious enough, to take another phenomenal leap. If you really let it set in you will be in awe of all this. But this, Rosetta, is a singular moment in history that I, you, us, have had the fortune to bear witness toons just incredible. Imagination. Ambition. Well done ESA. Well done humanity. What step will we take next?
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:23:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015