Philae comet lander wakes up!

[dwardo]

Don't know if anyone else is following this remarkable bit of engineering, but she is alive!

Philae comet lander wakes up - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33126885

 

[Macaroon]

I'm so glad this has worked out - the skill and ingenuity of these people leave me awestruck.

 

[HillBill]

That thing always worried me. Nice and easy to steer a comet where ever they want it, using similar thrusters that keep a satellite in orbit.

 

[dwardo]

That thing always worried me. Nice and easy to steer a comet where ever they want it, using similar thrusters that keep a satellite in orbit.

If anyone was gonna find a conspiracy theory it would be you!

 

[dewi]

That thing always worried me. Nice and easy to steer a comet where ever they want it, using similar thrusters that keep a satellite in orbit.

They'll be landing people on the moon next, you mark my words!

 

[petrochemicals]

They'll be landing people on the moon next, you mark my words!

Of course, and we'll all have robot butlers and flying cars.

I wonder how long the batteries will last at 6 months a charge, it would be disappointing if they only get 1 hour of talk time!

 

[HillBill]

Not bothered with any of that for years....I have always wondered why they want to land something on a comet though.

If anyone was gonna find a conspiracy theory it would be you!

 

[dewi]

Not bothered with any of that for years....I have always wondered why they want to land something on a comet though.

Mining opportunities.. or at least that's what they're telling us!

 

[Robson Valley]

What's in a comet? Are they all the same? How much is water?
The popular conjecture is that the bulk of earth's water arrived from comets.
The article says the little beast is up and running, communicating with earth, on just 24W power and -35C.

 

[bopdude]

The thing I find amusing / spooky and interesting.........................it has a twitter account #atmustgettwittertofollow

 

[Goatboy]

What's in a comet? Are they all the same? How much is water?
The popular conjecture is that the bulk of earth's water arrived from comets.
The article says the little beast is up and running, communicating with earth, on just 24W power and -35C.

Yup and those little blobs hae been traveling space collecting and distrubuting material. So giving us a good window as to what is out there.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[dewi]

What's in a comet? Are they all the same? How much is water?
The popular conjecture is that the bulk of earth's water arrived from comets.
The article says the little beast is up and running, communicating with earth, on just 24W power and -35C.

Any water would likely be ice and would probably be used to aid the mining process. Elements on asteroids include gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and tungsten.

James Cameron (the director) and Larry Page (Google) are two of the many billionaires who have invested in a space program to mine asteroids. Only thing holding them back at the minute is the cost of leaving earth's atmosphere.

Once they've mined the asteroid for all it's worth, they're going to put satellite-style thrusters on them and use them as weapons when the Klingons start kicking off!

 

[HillBill]

Risky as hell though. Comets are unstable bodies, which can be influenced by many things, even down to breaking apart, melting and being vulnerable to solar activity/flares etc.

Asteroids are a different thing entirely.

 

[dewi]

Asteroids are a different thing entirely.

Presumably when the data from Philae and Hayabusa are compared in 2018 (if they get decent data that is) science will have a clearer view on what's what. I'm hedging bets on comets and asteroids being pretty much the same thing, defined apart by orbit path (one being elliptical and the other circular) but either way, if the billionaires get their way, they'll mine the lot.

 

[sandbender]

Glad to read that she/he woke up.

Comets are mostly water, water is a valuable resource up there as, you can heat it to make jets of steam to push yourself around. You can break it down into stuff that can be burned as rocket fuel, you can drink it and you can surround yourself in it to protect yourself and your gear from background radiation.

Moving a comet around would be tricky as it is likely held together very weakly by its own gravity, however some parts will hold together better than others so shearing a bit off and guiding it into earth orbit may be do-able.

"...That thing always worried me. Nice and easy to steer a comet where ever they want it..."

If you want to pound the surface of the earth, you want nickel iron asteroids, swing them through a couple of gravity assists first and they'll make quite a dent.

 

[Macaroon]

Glad to read that she/he woke up.

Comets are mostly water, water is a valuable resource up there as, you can heat it to make jets of steam to push yourself around. You can break it down into stuff that can be burned as rocket fuel, you can drink it and you can surround yourself in it to protect yourself and your gear from background radiation.

Moving a comet around would be tricky as it is likely held together very weakly by its own gravity, however some parts will hold together better than others so shearing a bit off and guiding it into earth orbit may be do-able.



If you want to pound the surface of the earth, you want nickel iron asteroids, swing them through a couple of gravity assists first and they'll make quite a dent.

All going to make Gravity's Rainbow pale into insignificance when it happens, eh?

 

[Goatboy]

Glad to read that she/he woke up.

Comets are mostly water, water is a valuable resource up there as, you can heat it to make jets of steam to push yourself around. You can break it down into stuff that can be burned as rocket fuel, you can drink it and you can surround yourself in it to protect yourself and your gear from background radiation.

Moving a comet around would be tricky as it is likely held together very weakly by its own gravity, however some parts will hold together better than others so shearing a bit off and guiding it into earth orbit may be do-able.



If you want to pound the surface of the earth, you want nickel iron asteroids, swing them through a couple of gravity assists first and they'll make quite a dent.

Wasn't that one of the ideas put forward for the Thor's Hammer weapon proposal? To use near earth objects as projectiles to take out targets on the surface. Don't remember if they decided to go ahead with it but they did decide that titanium rods fired at high spead would be better. Starship Troopers come to mind with the bugs taking out (was it Buenos Aires?).

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Tengu]

It seems a bit tiresome compared with an ICBM.

Depends how big a hole you want, I suppose.

 

[Goatboy]

It seems a bit tiresome compared with an ICBM.

Depends how big a hole you want, I suppose.

The idea was to have something very acurate that would use its kinetic energy to destroy and leave no fallout. That way you can get boots on the ground quickly afterwards with little risk to them.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Jared]

Yeah, but what shirts are the ground crew wearing.... seemed the most important fact that bothered some a few months ago.