Comments on: Rosetta: mission to land on a comet

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:12:32 +0000

Ooh, I know we’re going to see a lot of these pictures on BA. A time lapse will certainly be expected.

Not a good voiceover. Some misplaced emphases and mispronunciations, and use of the wrong pitch on emphasis in several places. Too many bad points to catalog, but was /revelay/ supposed to be “reveille”?

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:24:06 +0000

Rosetta has quite a bit of NASA involvement. There are three U.S. instruments: the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph, the MIRO microwave instrument, and the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES). There are also several U.S. scientists as members on European instrument teams as well as interdisciplinary scientists as part of the Rosetta project.

By: Blargh

Blargh — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:52:16 +0000

@ Messier Tidy Upper

Given the Cassini-Huygens mission name for that combined orbiter/lander spacecraft, I’m wondering why they are not calling this Rosetta-Philae – I guess Rosetta is shorter and less of a mouthful when their already landing on a comet that’s hard to pronounce?

Could be, but then how do you explain how few can pronounce “Huygens” correctly?
(Dutch pronunciation is… strange.)

‘Ger’ as in ‘Geronimo’ at the start of the second – but I could be mispronouncing it myself. Anyone else know exactly how its said or have mnenonics for it?)

At least according to Russian pronunciation rules it should be “Girasimyenka” (the stress is on the ‘е’ in “Герасименко” – bolded in the transliteration for clarity) with a hard ‘G’.

By: Stargazer

Stargazer — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:14:55 +0000

@MHS

NASA/JPL has one instrument onboard the Rosetta, so I guess that’s why.

I too think that NASA and ESA should explore Mars together. Makes more sense.

By: Jess Tauber

Jess Tauber — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:22:34 +0000

The last few moments while the lander sets down will be pretty hair-raising (get it???).

By: TheVirginian

TheVirginian — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 07:10:38 +0000

Does Comet Quest have multiple levels, where you activate the robotic arms, legs, laser and particle weapons and advance into the cavernous depths of the gigantic comet to do battle with the aliens hiding inside preparing for their surprise attack on the Earth? Do you get to pick up additional weapons after you defeat the outpost guards, steal their energy pods, add their regeneration packs to your equipment so you can recover from otherwise-lethal wounds by their phasers, gamma-ray guns and armored tentacles? Can you penetrate into the dark inner sanctum, where their flying saucers hover, awaiting the command of their Dark Queen (who is the only alien that does not have tentacles, slime bags or stalk eyes, but rather look like 1960s Raquel Welch in a thong bikini) to descend upon mankind, and possess the (stolen) firepower to annihilate the BEM (and bikini’d) threat to us all?
If Comet Quest doesn’t have that, I. Am. Not. Interested.
(Well, maybe juuuussstttt a little, but only late at night, with the bedcovers pulled up so I won’t be discovered and lose my nerd cred.)

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:06:09 +0000

Superluminous (beyond merely brilliant) clip and mission – or missions. Thanks.

Given the Cassini-Huygens mission name for that combined orbiter/lander spacecraft, I’m wondering why they are not calling this Rosetta-Philae – I guess Rosetta is shorter and less of a mouthful when their already landing on a comet that’s hard to pronounce?

(Hint- Chu-ryu-mov Gera-si-menko with ‘ryu’ in the middle of the first word and ‘Ger’ as in ‘Geronimo’ at the start of the second – but I could be mispronouncing it myself. Anyone else know exactly how its said or have mnenonics for it?)

..engaged in its high-speed chase while fast asleep ..

Don’t try this at home – or on the roads! – folks. That line made me smile.

Loved the breath-taking image of Comet McNaught 2007 at the 50 second mark too.

Wonder how much Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko will resemble that comet at perihelion?

By: Keith Hearn

Keith Hearn — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:51:16 +0000

I read this and thought “Wait a minute, didn’t a Japanese probe already do that?” But I was mis-remembering. The Hayabusa probe sampled an asteroid, not a comet. I’m posting this in case anyone else is thinking the same thing.

By: drksky

drksky — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:40:36 +0000

Hah…30 years later and technology has progressed at unprecedented speed and we get … a Lunar Lander (Wikipedia) game.

By: MHS

MHS — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:37:55 +0000

Am I the only one who finds it strange that NASA is putting all this effort in creating animations and games of a European research mission? Especially after blatantly pulling out of their joint Mars program…