Rosetta/Philae landing timeline & video for Wed 12th

[finneyb]

http://rosetta.esa.int/

Rosetta briefing with photos NOW 13.20hrs Thursday

Brian

 

[Eric The Viking]

I got all cynical about the talk of harpoons (was thinking about Newtonian mechanics, and how they were going to get it back on the surface again after firing said harpoon), but earlier today read something about using a thruster to counteract the impulse. Shame it didn't work (the harpoon), as the first landing was apparently spot on target.

I do hope they get it the right way up and in decent sunlight. The whole thing is utterly brilliant.

The data rate back to Earth is apparently 28kbits/sec. That's as good as the modems we used in the early days of the internet. Given the transmitter power and the distance that's truly amazing.

 

[RogerS]

.....Given the transmitter power and the distance that's truly amazing.

Absolutely. So if they can pick up the signals from 500 million miles away then why the Hell can't I get an Orange signal down my local ? :lol:

 

[Eric The Viking]

why the Hell can't I get an Orange signal down my local ? :lol:

Er, not enough juice?

[fx: grabbing coat; running for it...]

 

[finneyb]

A truly stunning achievement , kudos to them all.
Just been listening to the "song" of the comet and wondered if I was the only one thinking of the sound effects for the movie Forbidden Planet. I could almost hear Walter Pidgeon chastising Leslie Nielson in the background.

Mike

You're just going to love this - Classic FM (UK a classical music radio station which is excellent by the way) website claims the comet 'singing' '....sounds an awful lot like 20th-century harpsichord masterpiece ' - Continuum for Harpsichord by 20th-century Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti. You can hear both on their website.

Read more at http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music ... 7swGjEm.99

Wiki tells me that Ligeti composed for films

If you want to listen live online to Classic FM in Canada - it will say something along the lines that it doesn't think you are the UK, but if you input a UK postcode it will lets you listen - use SW1A 1AA. I input a postcode when in the US and it works.

Brian

 

[RogerS]

Don't believe everything you read in Wiki ! Ligeti did not compose anything specifically for films. However, Kubrick used four of his pieces in 2001: A Space Odyssey but only one piece (Atmosphères) was played all the way through (towards the end IIRC).

 

[lanemaux]

Thank you Brian . Quite interesting , although like Saruman and Gandalf , alike but different. Unsurprising that Kubrick would be attracted to such a composer for 2001, unlike any other harpsichord piece I am familiar with.
Thanks for the tip on postal codes as well, but I have a proxy for most countries on a browser app. Let's me watch PBS programming I may have missed the night before , not all that unusual since the grey hair has taken over from the grey matter.