Wake up Rosetta!

[manoncharles]

Sorry - I have a lot to catch up.

(I'm guessing no-one will ever see it so you can tell us it will be )

I hope you're wrong, hell. With science improving every freaking day, I hope someone will ever see 67-P after the Rosetta mission.

Oh, the comet will be visible every 6.5 years, but only from a great distance, with zero hope of being able to see the nucleus, let alone its surface. That'd take another space mission ...

Well that's what I mean ; I guess we'll improve again and again in terms of space travelling and that would mean someone will probably cross ways with the comet sometime. Whether it's for another mission to another place, or, why not, maybe one day we'll be able to get touristy and visit Rosetta and Philae's corpses 

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned this little video launcing the new album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOsW1SudRL4

It starts with some self-styled "Prof" gushing embarrasingly, so you'd best just skip to 0:27 when he finally shuts up

PS. I'm secretly very proud of our very own Media Tart.

You should have heard what I would have been willing to say if I'd been paid.

Besides, I was probably the least gushy of the lot: our astronauts are true pros at it 

Oh god, I love the French astronaut, he seems like he doesn't really have anything to say and especially not in English but he's fine and happy with it anyway haha.

OK, everyone: the day is almost upon us. Rosetta's last moments, descending to the surface of Comet 67P, will culminate in a controlled impact at roughly walking at 11:20 GMT / 12:20 BST / 13:20 CEST (current best estimate) tomorrow, Friday 30 September.

Hope you all follow along on www.esa.int. You'll probably be seeing quite a bit of my grinning fizzog in the media tomorrow as well, if you can bear it 

GOOD LUCK ! <3 *turns off the TV and all communication medium* (just kidding - the TV was never on :p)

[Mikey]

& there he is 😀😀


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[Mikey]

I wish to register a complaint.
I've downloaded the Sky at Night special & no sign of Mr T Artist
Disgraceful ☹️️



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[D S]

I wish to register a complaint.
I've downloaded the Sky at Night special & no sign of Mr T Artist
Disgraceful ☹️️

Ahem - it's Professor T Artist you know... 

[owen]

It's not as if he's got any other MTing to do anymore.

[johninblack]

I watched Death On A Comet (Discovery Science) earlier this evening, plenty of MT. Very enjoyable program too.

[Trapezium Artist]

I wish to register a complaint.
I've downloaded the Sky at Night special & no sign of Mr T Artist
Disgraceful ☹️️

Yes, that's an interesting one. I was filmed in an interview with Maggie A-P for their 2014 Philae landing doc, but ended up on the cutting room floor. I don't remember it that clearly, but did think at the time that some of the questions I was being asked were a bit odd, so perhaps the fit wasn't right.

And there are certain elements at the BBC that love Matt Taylor, the Rosetta Project Scientist, as he better fills their desire to expand demographically (working class background, tattoos, beard, etc.) than me. Don't get me wrong, Matt's great (I appointed him to the job, after all), but sometimes the BBC's approach to such things can be a bit heavy-handed (there's a lot more to this story, but I'm not going to write it here  ).

So when it came to last week's programme, they went with the same faces for continuity. (FWIW, I didn't think the show was very good: too short and too much background information, not enough from landing day itself.)

But problem from my (invisible) perspective: I was doing plenty of stuff last week, including live BBC radio, TV, etc., and filming for the Discovery Channel doc (which I haven't seen yet, but know I'm in quite a lot of). Plus I have all the Mars stuff coming up linked to our landing event on 19 October.  For example, was filmed for Ron Howard's upcoming National Geographic hybrid fact-fiction series about Mars:

http://www.popsci.com/watch-trailer-for-ron-howards-mars

Don't worry: you're not getting rid of me that easily 

[rogerg]

squee!

[Trapezium Artist]

Not really sure about about using the "Wake up Rosetta!" thread anymore ... she's asleep forever 

But just to keep all of you space cadets up to speed, we're not resting on our laurels (or our comets) here at ESA: next week sees the arrival of our ExoMars 2016 spacecraft at the Red Planet.

On Sunday, the Schiaparelli lander will separate from the Trace Gas Orbiter, and then on Wednesday afternoon, the former will land on Mars while the latter will execute a big orbit insertion manoeuvre, ahead of starting its science.

Big media attention already guaranteed, so watch along with your favourite broadcasters, as well at www.esa.int and on FB Live.

Plus there's a fairly good chance of some Media Tartery from your Special Correspondent: you can't keep him down 

[Mikey]

Plus there's a fairly good chance of some Media Tartery from your Special Correspondent: you can't keep him down 

Yay !!! 

[Mordwin]

Good luck! Hopefully all the calculations agree with reality on the day

[owen]

you can't do that! I'll be busy in Mickey Mouse Land. What time's this in Florida time?

PS just listened to Mr V doing his Rosetta stuff for the second time. Really enjoying it. It's a proper grower

[rogerg]

Awesome, TA!  Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Maybe we should start a new forum sub-section just for all the cool science that's happening!

[Trapezium Artist]

you can't do that! I'll be busy in Mickey Mouse Land. What time's this in Florida time?

PS just listened to Mr V doing his Rosetta stuff for the second time. Really enjoying it. It's a proper grower

Landing is around 14:59 UTC (signal arrives at Earth time), so I leave it as an exercise for the student to work out when that is in Florida. (Probably when you're standing in your first long line of the day).

(OK, I give in: Orlando is 4 hours behind UTC, so 14:59 UTC = 10:49 there. As I said, still stuck in the first queue of the day  )

[Mordwin]

Well, it's on it's way... watched as the news of separation came in... much staring at screens and muttering... then smiles and applause.

Next stop Mars... hopefully in a controlled fashion

(Of course, the orbiter is really the main piece of science here... and it has the tricky job of getting into orbit, but there will have been a bunch of clever people and less clever if quite powerful computers to figure all that out).