COMET LANDING- Europe set to make space history today!!

[mike2000]

Gooooo Rosetta.

 

[OrionHunter]

do ya know Martians were Irish Christians?-

View attachment 150083

Ancient Irish Cross Slabs Carved In Mars Rock Caught By Mars Rover Opportunity (Video) | Paranormal

It's not what we think it is. That mark was made by the APXS instrument carried on the rover. Notice the screws around the rim? Notice the inner curve of the rim? Notice how the imprint matches?

The APXS is a "contact instrument" that is pressed against the material it is analyzing. So the indentation resembling a Celtic cross.

 

[Levina]

space cameras are most technologically advanced- what constraints?-

I think the pictures 're not clear because
1) Rosetta was launched in 2004 when our cameras were not as high resolutioned as they're now.
2) The band width issue.A project called new horizon which was supposed to take pluto's pics launched in 2006 had a resolution of 1024 by 1024 at 1000 bits per second that would mean for each photo it would take 7 hours to transfer assuming that each pixel is 3 bytes.
Wiki says that at Pluto the bandwidth will 1000 bits per second. I would expect a lot of error correction on that channel, so much less than 1000 bits per second will be available to send back the images. It might have been counterproductive to put a higher resolution sensor on there anyway because of difficulties getting the data back.I'm expecting this could be one of the reasons fro blurry pics.

 

[OrionHunter]

space cameras are most technologically advanced- what constraints?-

That image was taken when Rosetta was 30km from the surface. So that's the best resolution that could be obtained considering the data bandwidth available.

Check out levina's post above, too.

 

[Nova2]

space cameras are most technologically advanced- what constraints?-

some other reasons are ''Dust caps''.

All the cameras onboard Curiosity/any sattalite/rover/lander are covered with transparent dust caps. These were installed to protect the lenses during landing. Engineers knew that the landing operation, with the skycrane firing its rockets over the rover, would produce a lot of dust: particles that could fly around and damage the delicate camera glass.

 

[hunter_hunted]

There are constraints on cameras used in space missions.

How much constraint Spacecrafts are big and even you focus on one object for sometime the image start to look better . But this is dull

 

[Levina]

That image was taken when Rosetta was 30km from the surface. So that's the best resolution that could be obtained considering the data bandwidth available.

Check out levina's post above, too.

some other reasons are ''Dust caps''.

All the cameras onboard Curiosity/any sattalite/rover/lander are covered with transparent dust caps. These were installed to protect the lenses during landing. Engineers knew that the landing operation, with the skycrane firing its rockets over the rover, would produce a lot of dust: particles that could fly around and damage the delicate camera glass.

Look at this pic clicked by Rosetta at 10km....this comet has weird rock formations.

 

[war is peace]

When will eu land on sun?

 

[war is peace]

When will eu land on sun? Or will china

 

[jamahir]

It looked like an super-dark rubber duck, ravaged by aeons in orbit, turning slowly in space.

The comet comprises two lobes joined by a narrow "neck", giving it the silhouette of a toy bath duck.

from the first picture, it looks nothing like a duck... but more like a humanoid sea creature that had been lost to time...

The 100-kilogram (220-pound) probe will seek out a minuscule landing site on the treacherous surface of an object darker than coal,

aren't comets supposed to have ice surface??

Is it hard and crusty, like a shell? Crumbly? Slippery? Is it brittle—will it crack, causing Philae to sink into some fudgy or spongey substance below?

very good questions... simple... critical to learn for later human landings on asteroids.

ts surface was a nightmare of crests and gullies, studded with hundreds of rocks as high as 50 metres (165 feet)

big...

If it could be brought back to Earth, it would smell like a bad mix of rotten eggs and horse urine, among other things, tests of its escaping gases suggest.

ahhh... first thing compulsory smelling for the mornings... but are the gases corrosive and explosive??

It will avoid escaping the comet's weak gravity by shooting two harpoons into its surface and using screws in its feet to secure itself to the surface.

The historic attempt to land on a comet will take place more than 500 million kilometres (310 million miles) from Earth

Launched on March 2, 2004, Rosetta was placed in a two-and-a-half-year hibernation in June 2011 to limit power and fuel consumption on its six-billion-kilometre (3.7-billion-mile) journey.

so, just because present technology doesn't allow powerful space engines ( at least those not nuclear ), the short distance took ten years because of need for sling-shots and all...

If all goes well, signals giving confirmation of the landing will arrive on Earth at 1602 GMT

so i await... 21:30 indian time...

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by the way, what of the japanese asteroid mission ( hayabusa) which has brought back dust from the asteroid itokawa?? anyone know recent news??

 

[jamahir]

Space, the final frontier. Our mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before....

that is humanity's true profession and industry...

 

[Arsalan]

that is humanity's true profession and industry...

NO exactly, humanity call for mush minor steps first, small daily routine issues that effect common man, our planet and all the lives on earth. It is not that space exploration is a bad thing, even our religion ask us to explore the unknown but it is all about setting your priorities right. Saying that space exploration is the humanity's true profession while ignoring all that we are doing to our surroundings and our fellow beings is not true!

 

[jamahir]

Look at this pic clicked by Rosetta at 10km....this comet has weird rock formations.

View attachment 150152

wow... impressive formation... and the beautiful dark starry background... the scene looks so poetic... i want to stand on a asteroid within fifteen years.

When will eu land on sun? Or will china

land on sun?? well, with present technology one cannot even be within one million kilometers of the sun... read about the "hinode" project of jaxa ( japan space agency ) which has taken photos of sun... one is below... an electromagnetic formation on the surface..

 

[jamahir]

NO exactly, humanity call for mush minor steps first, small daily routine issues that effect common man, our planet and all the lives on earth. It is not that space exploration is a bad thing, even our religion ask us to explore the unknown but it is all about setting your priorities right. Saying that space exploration is the humanity's true profession while ignoring all that we are doing to our surroundings and our fellow beings is not true!

your last few words are correct... "all that we are doing to our surroundings and our fellow beings".

humanity's problems are simple... they are social and political... (a). existence of money system, (b). existence of national governments, nationalism, and the consequent wars, (c). anti-human cultural practices, (d). the obsolete family system.

if we remove even the first three, most of humanity's problems will vanish immediately... those problems are not from nature... adoption of the idea of "communist humanity" will leave us with all the time to pursue exploration of space... simple... those who refuse communism are the ones who stubbornly prolong socio-political problems.

 

[OrionHunter]

When will eu land on sun?

That's if we want some fried asses!!