Wake up Rosetta!

[owen]

Crossing fingers here, TA

[Mikey]

MT live on Radio 5
Great interview with Nicky Campbell


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[Trapezium Artist]

MT live on Radio 5
Great interview with Nicky Campbell


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Thanks, Mikey: spoke to him again yesterday as well.

Most challenging interview out of many this week was late Thursday night. I'd cancelled my last one, scheduled for 22:45 local, as I was exhausted and needed to unwind.

So, had a nice big glass of red wine at ESOC, then retired to the hotel with the BBC crew for some more drinks. By 23:30, was a third of my way into a traditional "Touchdown Cocktail" (just don't ask the speed we touched down at), when the BBC producer's phone rang and she asked me whether I'd be willing to go on Newsnight. In 15 minutes. Live.

Gulp 

But you can't keep a good MT down, and so we rushed up to my bedroom (ooer, missus), set up Skype over their clever multi-4G box, and waited for Evan Davis. With a not entirely clear head, I thought "well, this could either go extremely well, or extremely badly."

Am still not 100% sure which it was in the end.

The things I do for science 

[JimD]

Am still not 100% sure which it was in the end.

Having watched it I felt it was polite, authoritative, factual and illuminating and I personally could not sense that you may have "had a few" as you suggested.

[Mordwin]

A shame with Schiaparelli, but the TGO is in orbit, and I hope that somewhere in the masses of telemetry are answers, progress comes from failure after all, though you have to know why.

[Trapezium Artist]

Am still not 100% sure which it was in the end.

Having watched it I felt it was polite, authoritative, factual and illuminating and I personally could not sense that you may have "had a few" as you suggested.

Thanks, Jim: appreciated. Only the glass of wine had had time to act, but that was on a pretty empty stomach, as I hadn't had time to eat anything all day either.

But as long as the mild befuddlement was only in my conscious mind, while the other part did its media duty, then it's all good 

[Trapezium Artist]

A shame with Schiaparelli, but the TGO is in orbit, and I hope that somewhere in the masses of telemetry are answers, progress comes from failure after all, though you have to know why.

Indeed, people are working through all the telemetry details in earnest, and we should have a pretty good idea about what worked (the heat shield and high-speed parachute, for sure, both tricky), and what probably didn't, e.g. why the thrusters shut down after just 3-4 seconds. We'll then run all the telemetry through a copy of the flight computer here on Earth and see how the systems responds to the particular set of inputs: might be a software error or an inconsistent hardware inputs.

We thrive on trying to do hard things here, and we all have to accept that sometimes things will go wrong. But as long as we take stock and learn, we're good.

[Mikey]

e.g. why the thrusters shut down after just 3-4 seconds.

If it should have run for 30 seconds then I'd be asking who lost the Zero in 30?

[rogerg]

A shame with Schiaparelli, but the TGO is in orbit, and I hope that somewhere in the masses of telemetry are answers, progress comes from failure after all, though you have to know why.

Indeed, people are working through all the telemetry details in earnest, and we should have a pretty good idea about what worked (the heat shield and high-speed parachute, for sure, both tricky), and what probably didn't, e.g. why the thrusters shut down after just 3-4 seconds. We'll then run all the telemetry through a copy of the flight computer here on Earth and see how the systems responds to the particular set of inputs: might be a software error or an inconsistent hardware inputs.

We thrive on trying to do hard things here, and we all have to accept that sometimes things will go wrong. But as long as we take stock and learn, we're good.

You guys rock. 

[Trapezium Artist]

So, fresh from my gig at the Prog Awards (cough), I'm now heading south for some live stage shows in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra this coming weekend, talking about Mars with Buzz Aldrin (as you do  ) and others.

If there are any Frost*ies in the area who're coming along, let me know (of course, Manon will be there  ).

Then on to New Zealand for three days break, then Chile to travel to the observatories at Paranal and ALMA in the Atacama.

And if anyone in Sydney has a 56cm frame road bike (I'm 5'10"/178cm, 85kg) or a friend with one that they'd be willing to loan / rent to me on Saturday and Sunday, that'd be fantastic. All my gear (shoes, pedals, helmet, clothes, repair kit etc.) is packed, but I've discovered that the rentals in Sydney are booked out because of a big mass participation ride to Wollangong on Sunday 

Help!

[rogerg]

Rock on, TA!!

[D S]

You'll enjoy the Atacama TA.  My eldest daughter is just back from there and the photos look amazing. 

[Mikey]

& I get to go to Guildford 😢😢😢


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[DueyC]

So, fresh from my gig at the Prog Awards (cough), I'm now heading south for some live stage shows in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra this coming weekend, talking about Mars with Buzz Aldrin (as you do  ) and others.

Just in time to miss Blunders with Steven Wilson. That was rather poor timing. 

[owen]

Buzz Aldrin. How cool is that?

Where's Rook these days?