Sky_walker

I got a cheaper solution: Launch few cubesats on highly elliptical orbit, and then pretend you lost contact with them while making an orbital maneuver. Carrier will have too much inertia to dodge them, and bang, in few seconds you won't have any usable carrier.

In entire US, a country that just build a mega-starship on the orbit using godawful powerful rockets, noone ever "been out of the simulator"? Yea, right, I call that: Total BS. Just like this thing with super heavy launch vehicles being launched in secret, secret NASA that noone knows about, an office with a moving wall opening right into the launch silo where they are still welding something to the engines, sending crew to the most risky mission in a human history where noone but one guy ever "been out of the simulator", or the fact that they had to manually dock with the space station - station that obviously had it's assembly had to be done by people, as otherwise they'd have automated docking systems for years, perfected enough to accomplish extremely complex and large scale orbital construction effort (automatic docking of a manned ship is a piece of cake comparing to automated assembly of something in that size on an orbit). Just put an X-wings there, and get over it. Or Star Trek teleportation devises. It'd make more sense than this whole affair in the movie. Nothing makes sense there. It's nonsense on top of nonsense on top of nonsense. I liked this movie, I really did, but trying to call it as a masterpiece of realism like many people do (not you, but in general) makes me laugh.

No. There's no 'engines are reliable enough to ignore escape system'. Also: Engines are not the only thing that might fail during the launch. No, it does not depend on how cheap the flights are. It depends if there's any destination for astronauts to go to, if there are any objectives for such mission, and if there are some alternatives. Note that space agencies potentially most interested in taking astronauts to the ISS make it through exchange programs (like ESA who got several astronauts taken to the ISS and Mir in exchange for their contribution to the station and/or by giving hardware to NASA) and aren't really interesting in picking up random flights just because they can. In theory there's a prestige to by gained by sending a first astronaut from your country - see Malaysian Angkasawan program. But it was widely criticised and a list of countries potentially having money and political will to repeat the same stunt is most likely empty.

MUPUS did some great science there. It looks like they landed on a rocks with some of fluffy powder. There was a lot of debate in before based on Rosetta Osiris photographs if these cliffs and boulders are rocks, crust, or snow shaped over millenia into something that looks like earthy rocks. By all means it looks like these are really rocks. Another secret of the comet uncovered If Philae would wake up in future - MUPUS will provide additional data on a temperature on a surface.

Wow... I really admire how your nickname is totally appropriate. You know what we would do a lot of in all that time? A lot of arguing about wasting money on unrealistic goals, and a lot of 3D renders. That would be about it. "Somewhat" being a key difference between is and isn't.

They got all of the data from CONSERT. Now Philae is in standby, sends only one data packet each few minutes, low power on the batteries, there's some hope it'll weak up on a next pass tomorrow morning, but bigger hope for later on. If power runs really low or down to zero programming allows it to recharge over a span of several days and then attempt contacting Rosetta though single packets. Orbiter will be listening all the time while passing over the area.

OK, it's done. They switched Philae into standby mode with all instruments off, hoping to hear from it in future as comet gets closer to the sun. Every instrument got a chance to run, despite of earlier obstacles - overall mission was a great success. Last photo they took was from ROLIS - camera pointing down the ground, making in total 3 photographs (previous 2 were already released) - only one photo from the ground was in original mission goals. But Rolis isn't the only instrument that benefited from this adventure - most notably ROMAP gathered tons of data that otherwise would be impossible to get, but bumping off the comet gave scientists a very unique opportunity. Now it's party time in ESOC. And after that - they'll finally catch some sleep

That's why KSP players shouldn't have anything in common with designing real spacecrafts. Wise choice of priorities. The ladder. Yea... I'm sure astronauts will be super-happy sitting between the engines. Not to mention the escape system... does it include build-in stargate to get out from under the fuel tanks?

Correct. They're actually receiving data from the latest pass right now as we speak: (this photo is a random telemetry display, not an actual data from the instrument, but people ask for photos, so I deliver )

CONSERT was used in a very first day.

? There was no "blowing off" involved in anything what happened till now. Beautiful idea, sadly: That's not a real world. Wow, you got really short attention span if it's already an old news ESA already published images covering every topic of the mission and they publish more every day. Whatever this are images You want to see or not - that's a separate topic. Yes, NASA is known to snap photos like crazy, they even get criticized for that (Cruiosity - the most expensive photobooth in a history of man kind), but NASA is NASA. They need all of that for money and because of the way their budget works. ESA isn't the one popping up with ideas like sending senators to ISS in a hope to scratch more dollars, they're much more stable and focused on scientific goals within their limited budget. Which reminds me of... Fox: "Why did America waste money landing on a comet?" Scientist: "This is a European mission." Fox: "Why didn't America get there first?"

Read my brief of press conference today: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79190-Rosetta-Philae-and-Comet-67P-Churyumov-Gerasimenko?p=1541507&viewfull=1#post1541507 It won't be blown off. Or at least: It's very unlikely. (I dare to keep with my "won't be" statement)

1. Risky. 2. Requires additional hardware on both parts (Orion never was build for orbital assembly) 3. There's no launcher capable of launching Orion in 2 parts and then directing it at a correct orbit out of LEO. 4. Risky. The "most likely" version is that it won't be cancelled. Depends what you want to do there. Obviously they are not needed - we have rovers and orbiters on Mars, somehow they made it there. Yea..... future.... will be bright and beautiful. I'm sure of that too

Exact quote: The "if" part obviously being if they change to provide enough power to the solar panels. I don't see them confirming any theories there. It's quite simple logic - comet moves closer to the perihelion.

Latest Rosetta blog entry: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/philae-still-talking/

There's a lot of benefits in delivering cargo in one go instead of multiple. Most importantly: It's BY FAR less risky. But also allows you to fly different payloads that otherwise wouldn't be possible to bring into orbit (either due to weight or volume limitations - remember that SLS also takes much larger cargo than Angara, not just heavier).

They got signal back, a little bit later than expected, but data is coming in They also just confirmed successful comet drilling! Right now uploading commands to rotate the lander - plan is to point larger solar panel directly towards the sun. We'll know more on the effects in an hour. Comm window will last between 3 and 4 hours (it varies a bit each time, hard to predict exact time span), so they'll have a chance to upload additional commands after receiving a feedback from readjustment.

I can only add this: They spam you with images every day, and you still complain. Jeez....

Build your version of Rosetta and Philae, and make a mission to a large asteroid with the most elliptical orbit you can find!

It will not work for the reasons above. You can't replace harpoons with something that is not instant and we can tell from right on that won't survive 10 years in vacuum.

Another success. MUPUS instrument deployed and worked flawlessly hammering into the surface of a comet. Short video of the hammering action: And a longer video on how it works : --- Shameless link to my brief from the latest press conference. --- Distant horizons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/15786846832/ Part of a reason why I hate this whole thing - can't make up my mind which side is worse. Both call names, both threaten each other with death or suggest committing suicide. It's ridiculous. Let's not have this here, please. Focus on an important stuff: Science. It's "The Science Labs". If anyone wants to discuss random topics - there's a separate section of the forum for that.

Yes, please. It actually should be big enough to fit 2.5m parts with some basic, small additions on a sides. (so we'd avoid clipping).

It means that it did not slide nor made any moves while conducting experiments. We're talking here about post-landing sequence of events, not landing itself. And: Thank you

Should be "legs". Sorry

Meeting brief: previous brief - from meeting yesterday. - MUPUS and APXS activated, worked. MUPUS went down to 25 cm from the base plate, but they couldn't receive all of the science data before end of a comms link (they spent plenty of time uploading commands and moving housekeeping data around). - This evening we'll know if drilling succeeded, though so far early data suggests that it did manage to contact ground before end of a contact window. Data from the experiment will arrive in a next window. - 9pm UTC - beginning of a next contact window (but expected to establish the data link since 10pm UTC) These were two most risky experiments and that actually run, despite of earlier worries that they won't. Hopefully everything will go well with the drill and data will be there in perfect shape for scientists to explore! - Rosetta still did not manage to photograph Philae. Single photograph is between 1x1 and 2x2 km in area. Right now it's the highest priority for OSIRIS team. They have 84 post-landing images so far. - NASA says they're very excited about small body exploration age. - They plan to rotate lander to get larger panel in a sunlight - this should make it more likely for Philae to wake up after some time, as Comet approaches closer to the sun. - They need 80 Wh to complete current experiment, and have 100 Wh left. - It will be really, really close if they'll make it to the another contact window (one after the upcoming one) - They say that bouncing out of the current "hole" is very unlikely. - It looks like they are surrounded by rocks. - All 3 legs on the ground, Philae did not move at all after the first landing - They're looking to spin up the flywheel and "throw it (Philae) somewhere" in a hope to move out of the current position. It's "an attractive idea" but they don't know if there will be enough power to perform such maneuver. - No plans to fire harpoons again - Measurement from COSAC requires less energy and is more complimentary to the measurements from an orbiter, that's why it was selected instead of PTOLEMY to receive a surface sample. - Comet is gray, but there are few, small, brighter areas where they see less red. (That's contrary to some earlier illustrations random people made online picturing 67/P in brown). - Landing gear successfully dumped majority of the impact energy. Otherwise they'd have even larger jumps. - They don't expect lander to be blown away by out-gassing. It's density is very high. - Now they can do the science, that the data is here. - Lander needs 5.1W to boot, they have to heat batteries up to 0 degrees C to charge the batteries, so the hope to recharge battery is only there if they get closer to the sun, at least 1AU. - Every scientific instrument is working very well. - Synchronous orbit is not possible - orbiter will be too disturbed by the outgassing on a day side to stay there, and as far as it could stay on a night side - it wouldn't gather much useful data there. - Rosetta is on a terminator plane, a safe orbit with minimal perturbations to the orbiter. They are flying on a very short hyperbolic arcs making burns to turn, but soon they'll get back to 30km circular orbit. They hope to make 8km flyby early next year. - Someone asks why Philae has no nuclear battery. Everyone laugh. - Europe has no capability to produce RTGs due to political reasons. - Hayabusa 2 and Osiris Rex are 2 upcoming missions to the asteroids. Summary notes: - Philae is already a great success. There will be a good science from a current results, even if everything fails right now. They already have great data down on earth. Now it's up to scientists. - Every instrument got a chance to get measurement. - In August next year comet will be "active like hell". - Image from ÇIVA at of a lander leg at the surface of a comet was an image of the life ~Holger Sierks - First results from the lander will be heard in December. - This was fantastic and crazy week for the scientists, something they waited for over 20 years. - They'll try to keep everyone up to date not only in upcoming weekend, but over a year as well. - Thanks for reading, feel free to click Video for those who want to see the whole thing: