Monday, November 17, 2014

Mankind Leaps Again

https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532565327721545728/photo/1In mankind's journey into the universe beyond the planet, the greatest leap was the moon walk. Not only has there been no progress that size since, there have been few feats that were equal, or even comparable. (OK, driving a car on the moon wins). Huge events, nonetheless, include Sputnik, the re-usable space vehicle, private satellite launch and robots on Mars. This week has seen another milestone for the history book: landing a robot on a comet.
It had some problems, but what's cutting edge if it doesn't occasionally bleed? Maybe for the next mission, they'll reconsider the wisdom of solar power in the far solar system.
(Update Nov18/14) They were looking for organic molecules on the surface and they found them. We'll have to wait until the sunlight gets better before we get any more detailed analysis.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Building a House on the Moon

Europe (ESA) has a plan:
(May'15) More on the European plan (with infographic and nerdfan discussion.) ...of course, it's a stepping stone to this: