Rosetta probe

Yesterday we went to lunch with old university friends who, like us,  are retired. They live in Letchworth, which is about an hour away.  The husband was the Project Manager of the Rosetta Project during his working life. This successfully orbited an asteroid and landed a probe on the surface. He was interviewed on the TV and made national news recently. He is a very modest fellow, but very bright. He got a 1st in Physics, but you would never believe it. We have been friends for nearly 50 years.

More on the Rosetta mission

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Rosetta.jpg

John Mullins G0TEV has kindly sent me these links:

Hi Roger

I saw your comments on your blog regarding the Rosetta mission and the subsequent landing of Philae. Personally I thought that it was an amazing achievement. I just hope that the lander can be illuminated sufficiently to recharge it’s batteries and carry out further science.

The following URLs may be of interest.

http://new.livestream.com/esa/cometlanding

https://plus.google.com/events/c78o050l93ub7cm4kcoltjnt424

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_media_briefing_replay

http://news.discovery.com/space/philaes-batteries-have-drained-comet-lander-sleeps-141114.htm

Landing on a comet

One cannot help but be impressed by the space probe Rosetta to a comet and the subsequent landing of the Philae probe on the comet's surface.

This week I learned that one our friends was the Project Manager for this at Astrium back in the late 1990s. He is now retired but he was invited back for the landing. I hope they manage to get the lander moved to a better illuminated spot.

I was very impressed.