Wake up Rosetta!

[Mordwin]

A busy man! I'm sure once he's finished being MT, he'll get back in his phone box and emerge once more as our very own TA

But really exciting news!

[sawtooth]

How marvellous! Well done TA (MT) and team.

[Trapezium Artist]

Hello, darlings: did you miss me? Of course, not; I was everywhere

Actually, it pissed me off royally: could Philae really not have chosen a workday to wake up on, so I could have gone cycling yesterday? Ruddy inconsiderate Lonely Robot (I'm sure that JM's album is all about Philae, really  )

Mad couple of days, really: endless MT stuff, all day today as well, and many things turned down due to lack of time as well. My proudest moment was doing a long interview with the Mail Online with my fingers crossed behind my back, only to find that they didn't use a bit of it in their article anyway.

And for those in Britland this evening, I'm supposed to be doing Newsnight at around 23:00 BST, taking part in a discussion not only about Rosetta and Philae, but also about the anthropomorphisation of spacecraft and robots with cute twitter feeds and cartoons (entirely guilty, your honour). Should be fun: hopefully Kirsty Wark will be nicer to me this time 

Anyway, more seriously, thanks for all the positive comments and for following along: we're constantly amazed at quite how engaged the world has become in this "mission that keeps on giving".

But returning to the MT moniker, when I first saw that, I was sure you were confusing me with the Rosetta Project Scientist, Matt Taylor, he of the tattoos, and who will be picking up an award from Brian May at this ceremony in London tonight:

http://metalhammer.teamrock.com/features/2015-06-15/metal-hammer-golden-gods-2015-live-blog

Compared to him, I'm an amateur MT 

[Mordwin]

Having just watched The Sky at Night, and seeing this and listening to this, I'd tend to agree, MT does rather out-MT you!

Still, TA is *our* MT

[Trapezium Artist]

Having just watched The Sky at Night, and seeing this and listening to this, I'd tend to agree, MT does rather out-MT you!

Still, TA is *our* MT

Aww, shucks ... 

As for Newsnight, well, I'll leave others to comment on what they might have seen. What a waste of electrons (and lots of my time). Someone clearly came to the party with an agenda in mind, and it wasn't me ...

Hope I kept my cool though, at least a little.

[gr8gonzo]

My 9 yr old daughter was snuggled up next to me earlier this evening, reading Philae's tweets and giggling at the fact that a machine sitting on a comet hurtling through space has a Twitter account. I was tickled to hear Philae was awake and am looking forward to hearing what the data has to tell us. It's beyond fascinating that this mission is a reality. I hope Philae transmits for years and years to come.

[Mikey]

Bugger. I missed all this 

[RacingHippo]

Bugger. I missed all this 

TA - you need to orchestrate a "Wake Up Mikey" campaign!

[catherine]

The interview with Philae, about whether TA was cute, can be seen here for the next 29 days.

[Trapezium Artist]

Bugger. I missed all this 

TA - you need to orchestrate a "Wake Up Mikey" campaign!

OK, you're on: send in your six-second Vine or six-hour prog epic via YouTube to "Wake Up Mikey!", with a link here.

Winning entry by Saturday-ish or whenever I can be arsed, as judged solely by me and without any recourse in any way whatsoever, especially if there are too many entries for me to even bother watching, gets a scale model of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko delivered to their door sometime, somehow.

Pedro doesn't get to win because, well, he's too good at this sort of thing always. Unless he's really, really good this time. And he's bound to enter anyway.

Well, except ... when was he last seen round these parts, exactly?

(Gonzo: unfortunately you'll need to schedule some bereavement counselling for your daughter now: highly unlikely that Philae will stay alive for much more than October-ish at best, and besides, in September 2016, we're probably going to land Rosetta on the comet, at which point, it's all truly sayonara.)

[gr8gonzo]

I reject this scenario and insert my own as it is clear to me that Philae is certain to be mysteriously powered again, be it by nature, a curious lifeform or Starfleet and continue to talk to us long after its expiration date. If not, October's good, too.

[Mikey]

Bugger. I missed all this 

TA - you need to orchestrate a "Wake Up Mikey" campaign!

I wish somebody would, he's useless

[JakeWorrell]

Haha I just watched that News Night thing... was it an interview? What a load of nonsense. I'm angry on your behalf TA.

[catherine]

It's all this gender stereotyping, you know. Rosetta being the non-adventurous female who sits back meekly while Philae (the brave little boy lander) gets all the glory.

In my book, flying hundreds of millions of miles to actually get to the comet is no mean achievement... I get the feeling that whatever genders had been assigned to Rosetta and Philae, that woman would have picked a fight. As a woman myself, I didn't feel it was in any way belittling; I was just really impressed at the amazing achievement by ESA and our very own MT.

[Mikey]

As for Newsnight, well, I'll leave others to comment on what they might have seen. What a waste of electrons (and lots of my time). Someone clearly came to the party with an agenda in mind, and it wasn't me ...

Hope I kept my cool though, at least a little.

Is that what they call dumbing down?
or just dumb?