Racing the Clock

ESA / AOES Medialab

WHAT A DAY:  So much to report on the #CometLander front, news both good and bad.

This infographic from Space.com does a great job of explaining what happened to Philae during its touchdowns. 
 
     
Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.
http://www.space.com/27767-philae-comet-landing-nearly-failed-infographic.html?adbid=10152451575581466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465&cmpid=514630_20141114_35609477

Despite Philae being stuck at the foot of an icy cliff, the Little Lander that Could got down to business. 

Around 4 p.m. this afternoon Seattle time, an ESA Facebook post read: "HAAA!! ‪#‎Armageddon‬? The Rosetta Mission just made comet drilling fact! Hopefully catching the first comet sample EVER. Go Philae!"

The screen shot below accompanied the post. 

But try as she might, Philae was fighting an uphill battle. It was a race against the clock. Best case scenario, Philae was supposed to have about 60 hours of power, but its unexpected landing spot, coupled with some solar panel troubles, cut that working time by nearly 20 percent. 

While news of Philae hard at work was exciting, it was very quickly followed by reports of its failing power. 

ESA - European Space Agency3 hours ago

Battery voltage is approaching limit soon now. Tough little Philae still hanging in there, exploring to the end!

And then around 5:50 our time, this Facebook post: 

Rosetta Mission2 hrs · Edited · 

Time to say good-bye

And then this ...

Rosetta Mission2 hrs · Edited · 

Great job with all the data, Philae, and sleep tight on Comet 67P/C-G!
Loss of signal at 01:36 CET. No more comms with Philae. All science data from First Science Sequence was successfully downloaded.
 

Aw. Philae, gone too soon ... From the Tweets and Facebook posts I read, people were downright bereft that Philae had slipped into the Big Sleep. I read one Tweet today that noted it was probably a bad thing that the ESA anthropomorphosized the lander. Just look at the little thing bravely ready to jump down off Rosetta and onto a comet!

Tonight, from the Rosetta b

log, was a more detailed report about Philae's waning moments.

OUR LANDER’S ASLEEP
With its batteries depleted and not enough sunlight available to recharge, Philae has fallen into 'idle mode' for a potentially long silence. In this mode, all instruments and most systems on board are shut down.

"Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence," says DLR's Stephan Ulamec, Lander Manager, who was in the Main Control Room at ESOC tonight.

"This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered."
Contact was lost at 00:36 UTC / 01:36 CET, not long before the scheduled communication loss that would have happened anyway as Rosetta orbited below the horizon.

From now on, no contact would be possible unless sufficient sunlight falls on the solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up.

The possibility that this may happen was boosted this evening when mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander's main body, to which the solar panels are fixed. This may have exposed more panel area to sunlight.

The next possible communication slot begins on 15 November at about 10:00 UTC / 11:00 CET. The orbiter will listen for a signal, and will continue doing so when its orbit enables communication visibility in the future.

The hugely successful Rosetta mission will continue, as the spacecraft tracks comet 67P/C-G on its journey to the Sun. Rosetta is the first spacecraft to rendezvous with and orbit a comet and has already returned incredible scientific data.

Is this the end for Philae? Maybe ... but maybe not. Only time will tell. 

ON A WING AND A PRAYER:  Apparently overnight, our resident Dinovember merrymakers got the crazy notion that they could fly. 

Problem is, none of them are pterodactyls. 

They managed to board the wings, but wound up on the ground within seconds of the kids stirring this morning. 

MUSIC: The kids are still plugging away on guitar. Today they worked on a happy ditty,
"Best Day of My Life" by American Authors.  They've been without formal guitar lessons for a couple months or more now, but between what they already know, what I know, and the magic of YouTube tutorials, we're able to work our way through most any song. 

After looking at a couple online lessons, I settled on one by by PapastachePop. After a couple of watches and run throughs, they were able to play something that sounded mostly like the song. Nice!

Comets, Dinosaurs, and Unicorns

The first comet panoramic from ESA's comet lander, Philae, taken by the lander's CIVA-P imaging system. It shows hows a 360º view around the point of Philae's final touchdown. The lander is superimposed into the image. 
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

LATEST ON LANDING: Our morning started with a briefing from European Space Agency folks regarding what was new with Philae overnight. The press conference was about 45 minutes long, live from the ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. It featured updates from the Rosetta mission operations team, the Philae lander manager and scientists, and a presentation of initial images and data from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

One thing we learned is that Philae actually landed three times! It bounced after first touch down, traveled kilometers, touched down again, had a smaller bounce, and then landed at its final resting spot.

Here is a photo Philae took as it was headed in for its first (and only planned/expected) landing. 

Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The red marks show the the first touchdown point of the Philae lander on Comet 67P/C-G,. The photo is from Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera, taken from a distance of 50 km, back on September 2, 2014. 

However, here is a screen shot from the ESA broadcast showing Stephan Ulamec, DLR Philae lander manager, showing a graphic of where Philae first landed (red) and bounced to (blue - the rim of a crater).

Experts think Philae bounced up to a kilometer with the first bump, was airborne for over an hour, and then the second bump was much shorter, perhaps around 20 meters. 

The good news is the lander appears to have landed upright, based on photos so far, and indications are that the science instruments on board are working. 

The not as great news is that where it is, the spot gets less sunlight than the original targeted landing spot. Early estimates were that Philae will only have 50 to 55 hours of battery power remaining because of the lack of sunlight (as opposed to a bit over 60 hours as initially anticipated). We also read reports of suspected solar panel damage, which certainly wouldn't help Philae's cause. According to BBC news, the lander is receiving only 1.5 hours of sunlight for every 20 hour rotation of the comet, which is insufficient to keep its batteries charged beyond the weekend. 

We'll certainly be watching and waiting for another update tomorrow.

CURIOSITY KILLED THE DINOS?:  Dinovember continues, and last night our visitors spent some time surfing the 'net. Apparently they were trying to figure out why there aren't more dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Or at least our neighborhood. ...

They were probably none too pleased with what they found out. ...

Bummer, dino dudes. ... 

ARTSY:  I'm behind on posting pics of Annabelle's art projects. Of course, if I posted pics of ALL of her projects, it would take me hours!

Here's a 3D card she made in art class on Wednesday. Cute, and a fun way to make one's artwork truly pop off a page!

And this morning, Annabelle used a tutorial at the back of the "Phoebe and Her Unicorn" book she got at "The Last Unicorn" special screening on Monday. 

Annabelle's version looks very much like Marigold, the unicorn in the book by local artist Dana Simpson. 

History!!!

Cute cartoon above and below: European Apace Agency

IN FOR A LANDING: Last night while we slept, the folks at the European Space Agency was doing a science. :)

They had made a list (in fact, many lists, no doubt) and I'm sure they were checking them more than twice, as it was time for spacecraft Rosetta to release her lander, Philae!  The little lander would descend, unpowered, entirely relying on gravity, toward the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. 

The team encountered a couple of anomalies in the wee small hours of our morning, and things were tense. However, in the end, it was determined Philae would be released as scheduled.

Let the finger crossing and breath-holding begin ... 

The photo below is Philae’s parting image of Rosetta, taken shortly after separation.

Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

And Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after shortly after separation. 

Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

And here, from the ESA and for our collective viewing pleasure, is the first image from the descent of Philae from ROLIS camera (3 m/pixel)! 

Doesn't look all that friendly down there ... 

The kids were *thrilled* when I pulled them out of bed about 6:30 to watch coverage of the comet landing, which mostly consisted of people staring at a computer screen. ;)

We watched NASA TV coverage during Philae's descent toward 67P. Then, as landing and signal reception became imminent, it switched to ESA coverage, which was mostly very nervous looking people in mission control, staring expectantly at monitors. We talked about the fine art of reading body language, and clearly there were many, protracted tense moments. 

Finally, there was good news to report!!! Philae had touched down ... anchored on ... eventually sent a signal back to Earth!!! Here's a link to BBC's coverage of confirmation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpXv8bYf3XA

An ESA mission, Rosetta is a multi-national project. NASA technology is on board, in the instruments ALICE, MIRO, and IES, and part of the electronics package for the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer - one of two detectors on the Swiss ROSINA instrument. NASA is also providing science investigators for selected non-U.S. instruments and NASA's Deep Space Network provides support for ESA's Ground Station Network for spacecraft tracking and navigation.

Little lander Philae only has sixty some hours of power to work with down on the surface of the comet. Here's hoping it's able to make the most of its time and we can't wait to read about its findings! What a great day for spaceflight!

MAGICAL MOVIE:  Yesterday evening we had a rare opportunity to see a cult classic animated movie and meet its author/screenwriter.

Based on a 1968 novel by Peter S. Beagle, the movie "The Last Unicorn" was released in 1982. Animated by the Rankin/Bass group, with voice talent including Angela Landsbury, Jeff Bridges, Alan Arkin, Mia Farrow, and Christopher Lee, it quickly earned a devoted fan base which has grown over the years.

An email from Central Cinema in Seattle's Central District let us know about the special screening of the movie, featuring a pre-screening reading by the author and a meet and greet afterward. Count us in!

We got to the theater early enough to score front row seats. Vintage cartoons were shown before the movie, including the Smurfs (to my chagrin).

We all did enjoy a 1936 short called "A Coach for Cinderella," in Technicolor, no less! It was actually a promotional movie by the Chevrolet motor company. The cartoon is pretty entertaining, and it's in the public domain now, so I can post it here! https://archive.org/details/Coachfor1936

At about 3:30, Mr. Beagle took the stage, much to the delight of the crowd.

He told a fanciful tale supposedly about the 'true' genesis of "The Last Unicorn," and then opened it up for questions. CJ's hand shot up first.

He (very politely) asked, "Mr. Beagle, what would you do if you met a unicorn in real life?"

The author seemed taken aback. (See the photo below, taken right after CJ asked the question.) I'm not sure he'd ever been asked that question before.

Mr. Beagle stood silently for a moment, contemplating, and then somewhat haltingly answered, "I'd kneel before it. ... and ask, 'What can I do for you?' "

Here's CJ's summation of the evening's events. ... 

Yesterday, I went to a place called Central Cinema where we got to see The Last Unicorn, a 1982 animated film directed by Rankin/Bass with a screenplay written by Peter S. Beagle, who was also the author of the 1968 book The Last Unicorn. Peter S. Beagle was at Central Cinema to sign copies of his books and respond to questions!

The plot of both the book and the movie The Last Unicorn goes like this: A unicorn living in a lilac wood discovers that she is the last of her kind after hearing some hunters talking about unicorns and how, according to the hunters, are all gone, and so the unicorn goes out to search for more of her kind outside of her forest.

The audience in Central Cinema got to ask Peter S. Beagle certain questions, most of them being what my mom called generic, like "What inspired you to make the protagonist of your story a unicorn?" or "Why did you make the forest that your unicorn lives in a lilac one?" I asked Peter S. Beagle the question "If you met face-to-face with a unicorn in real life, what would you do with her?" Peter S. Beagle responded to that question by saying that he would probably kneel down and say "What may I do for you?" to the unicorn.

After the show, there was also merchandise available to purchase. The merchandise available included stuff like T-shirts (with one that had a picture of the unicorn in The Last Unicorn (which had a subtle surprise that the black background was actually composed of the entire novel of The Last Unicorn!), other books by Peter S. Beagle (including one called Sleight of Hand, a collection of short stories by Peter S. Beagle, featuring one that was a prequel to The Last Unicorn), and even some film reels from the original 1982 screenings of The Last Unicorn!

We got our copy of the books The Last Unicorn and Sleight of Hand signed by Peter S. Beagle (he signed out copy of The Last Unicorn with the line "Have a taco", probably the most memetic line from both the book and the movie), and my sister, Annabelle, got a book called "Phoebe and her Unicorn" signed by the author of the Heavenly Nostrils book series, in which "Phoebe and Her Unicorn" is a part of, signed by the book's author, Dana Simpson.

After the movie, we went to the cafe portion of the theater, where we met Mr. Beagle. He signed a couple of books for us (as CJ noted above). 

We also had a chance to meet a local author/illustrator, Dana Simpson, and pick up her book, "Phoebe and her Unicorn," a graphic novel. We even talked a little "My Little Pony" with her for a bit. Fun!

Veterans Day

IN REMEMBRANCE: We wanted to take a walk this chilly but sunny fall morning, and wanted to chose a destination which would allow us to contemplate Veterans Day, as well. Fort Lawton, on the west edge of our neighborhood, was an obvious choice. 

However, rather than go to the military cemetery there, we decided to go to the part of the park where some abandoned military buildings are.  We stopped by the old church. It looks a lot more dilapidated than it did the last time we saw it, just a couple of months ago.

We checked out Freedom Grove.

This monument was dedicated over 60 years ago.

The grounds around the old military buildings are just gorgeous. 

BUSY DINOS:  The dinosaurs continue to make all sorts of mischief while we sleep during Dinovember.

Saturday night, the dinos were apparently curious about this "Ice Age" thing they'd heard about. It took the kids awhile to find them in the freezer.

I think the dinos were pretty happy to get back out into the warmth. 

Sunday night, the triceratops went into nesting mode. One hatchling was evident, with another arrival imminent.

Last night, they apparently decided to hold a log roll competition. As of this writing, it's still a stalemate. 

LAST GASP: It's freezing cold out today and that means garden season has come to an end in the Emerald City. This afternoon, we pulled up all the tomatillos, potted the peppers and called it a harvest.  We were able to glean enough produce for another batch of salsa verde - hooray!

I think we're done with corn, though. It never thrives. This ear certainly isn't Thanksgiving centerpiece worthy!

OH WHAT A NIGHT:  While we sleep, history will be made. Hopefully.

As we slip into slumber tonight, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission is at their milestone moment. The space probe will release a lander, which is set to rendezvous with Comet  67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko some seven hours later.

If and when it touches down, Philae will make history as mankind's first cometary landing. Coverage is available lots of places online. The ESA Web site is a good place to start: http://rosetta.esa.int/

We've been reading lots about the Rosetta mission in recent days, and an article we saw today was super interesting - the comet is, apparently, singing!

More specifically, the plasma environment around the comet is emitting noise. The article explained that plasma, the fourth state of matter, is an electrically conductive gas that can carry magnetic fields and electrical currents). The magnetic field of the comet is oscillating, with the 'song' being between 40-50 millihertz. That's far below what humans can hear, but Rosetta's instrumentation can pick it up. 

You can have a listen here: 

And check out this "Top 10 at 10 (kilometer) photo set from the Rosetta probe: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Highlights/Top_10_at_10_km

Amazing Astronaut

SATURDAY NIGHT: We had big fun Saturday evening - we had another opportunity to meet Canadian Space Agency astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield. 

He was appearing at the University of Washington bookstore in support of his latest book, "You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes." 

The kids marked the meeting with red and white moustahces! :) 

We were lucky to score front row seats.

Col. Chris Hadfield has a unique gift. He is able to crystallize ideas and share information in such a clear, captivating way.

Below, Col. Chris Hadfield explains what it feels like to be rocketed off our Earth. He likened a launch in the Space Shuttle to being lofted from the mouth of a fire-breathing dragon

Below, Col. Chris Hadfield holding court. He gave great advice about how to kids can help determine the career that's best for them. Hadfield suggested kids take note of which section of a library or bookstore they always gravitate toward and consider a career in that field. Excellent advice.

During the book signings, Col. Chris Hadfield was so generous with his time and attention. Check out how intently he's listening to CJ! He promised the standing room only crowd he'd stick around to meet each and every one of us.

He got a kick out of the kids' mustaches, and he complimented their shirts, too

COUNTDOWN'S ON: We are watching and waiting with great interest the Rosetta mission which is oh-so-close to launching its comet landing probe!

The lander, Philae, will (hopefully!) touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November. It will be a spaceflight first for humankind. Here's a sneak preview video ... 
http://youtu.be/3vKddvJ-Ahg


Philae will be ejected by Rosetta, and begin a 7-hour descent. 

You can check out live coverage here: http://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding, beginning at 11 a.m.  Pacific time 11/11.