Comet Landing

Good point! Talking of points i always liked the story of nasa spending a fortune on a pen that would write in zero gravity whilst the russians used a pencil.... Summat like that anyway!


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And Pot Noodle

 

lol

 

It's a nice story, but unfortunately not true. Both used regular ball point pens that work perfectly fine in zero gravity. Neither used pencils as they found that when the end breaks off it gets in to the wiring and fcuks the spaceship up.

 

It blows my mind when i start thinking about the planning and physics that have gone into getting that satellite to be in the same place, at the same time, at the same speed as the comet and then drop a lander in it. All done with at least a 30 minute communication delay. An absolutely staggering achievement.


Wheel? what the **** do we need a wheel for when theres a cave wall to daub.

 

'Like'

 

It's not necessary to spend money brewing beer but I'm glad we do.

Having spend over 30 years in a job where we were continually trying to develop new products and processes, it's clear to me that any type of research or development very often has unexpected "bonus" outputs, as others in this thread have pointed out. Even speculative R & D creates jobs and wealth which benefits the economy in general. Most of us on here are on computers, laptops, phones, tablets or whatever.

You're welcome to your opinion, but a bizarre one it is. In my opinion, of course.

 

Knew id heard something that said it was balls but i like the story.

I also like the story about the chicken gun for testing of high strength windows in high speed trains:

Allegedly, British rail companies borrowed the chicken gun from NASA for testing windshields for high-speed trains, but were shocked and confused at the amount of damage the gun did - the projectiles were not only breaking through the windshields but embedding themselves into seats farther down the train. When they asked NASA what they were doing wrong, NASA replied, "(Before firing) Gentlemen, thaw your chickens."

That also may be a myth.

 

I've heard of the chicken gun before, but not aimed at windscreens. Aeroplane manufacturers use them to fire at jet engines to simulate bird strike. I think both this and the pencil debunking thing came from QI. In fact, I reckon everything I know comes from QI.

 

Sounds like it's landed next to a cliff after bouncing around for a couple of hours, could mean the solar panels won't work and it'll be f'cked. Amazing though that it will just go to sleep then if it catches the sun again it'll charge back up. I'm fascinated by space, still can't get my head around it at all but that's what's so exciting.

 

solar panels working but only getting 1.5 hr of sun instead of 12 or something so they wont have as long to do everything.

when they have done experiments though they could try moving it as the feet can make it jump and the robotic arm could push it over - but they are still trying to locate exactly where it is and how it is situated.

 

Just been reading about it on BBC website, sounds like they're gunna get as much data as they can then have a go at moving it with the last bit of battery life as they have nowt to lose.

 

Were they fitted by the people who fitted Jays?

 

They still managed to do every experiment except one where the lens cover failed to open. All the rest they did and managed to upload the data.

So once it was done they then rotated the lander to put its largest solar panel into the sun and put it into hibernation mode.

So now it is charging each time its in the sun. All been well once it has charged some more they may try and move it again.

Good luck to em!



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