On Thursday, at 2 pm (six hours earlier in Colombia), the European Space Agency (ESA) quoted a press conference to explain his silence after the announcement of the landing module Philae on 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Feared the worst. The rumors said that the probe had a hard landing
One of the first to approach the podium was Jean-Pierre Bibring, co-leader of the scientific operations of the module A tall, thin man with white hair and messy, and an elegant silk scarf, which could pass for a relative of Einstein.
began his presentation to the hundreds of people gathered at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt (Germany) and the thousands of onlookers who watched the webcast. In perfect English he confirmed that Philae had bounced twice on the comet and landed in a place not fully identified.
He said it was on a cliff, so is almost permanently in the dark and in a position that prevents you hold the comet. He said the possibility of advancing all scientific procedures in a trial and ended his speech with the phrase brought me optimism and reminded me of the reasons why people are willing to risk everything for the curiosity that makes us the universe: “When know where we are, we will decide the next step. Do not put much emphasis on the failure; it is beautiful where we are. “
In his words was consigned the spirit of what the Canadian astronaut Chris Hatfield called expeditionary attitude that exists in everyday life, at different scales. I’ve seen it in the faces of people who refuse to be outdone by the algebra; in my lab mates when they refused to stop failing our telescope while floating 40 miles above Antarctica; Astronauts on the International Space Station, passing smoothly installing a new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope repair the bathroom shared with peers; in the face of Faryd Mondragon when urged his team-mates and I were on the bench.
The Rosetta mission began with a setback. Its original purpose, the comet 46P / Wirtanen, then walked away from a failure of the Ariane 5 rocket, leading to a mission outside the Earth’s atmosphere. A year later, Rosetta embarked on a ten-year journey to comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
No press conferences to summarize the days when flight engineers tested procedures that led to the probe dangerously close to Mars to correct trajectory. No pictures of awakening amid hectic night of the scientists who were concerned with the tools that would send 500 million miles from Earth and no longer have time to improve. No photos showing the work of someone who corrected the mistake could have ruined the whole mission years before earthlings know she exists. But it is thanks to them that Rosetta is now closely follows the comet and Philae working on it.
With Rosetta 55,000 kilometers per hour near the comet, and Philae still in its surface, no time to regret a bumpy landing. The voice module on Twitter (@ Philae2014) announced Thursday morning that the absence of one, had three landings, and then on Friday morning said he was in the gloom, but he knew that the research teams were find it. Having completed work on the comet will begin on scientists who analyzed the data.
took ten years to build Rosetta, another ten to get to 67P, and will take many years to understand what they reveal their observations. Since today we work on future landings. Even after Philae and Rosetta, no time to stop. Tomorrow will come probes will orbit Venus, which will land on Mercury, which will visit rocky moons of Jupiter.
as dramatic missions will come that we can not explain to our children or those of they us the thrill that seized upon the first image of Philae. We can only convey curiosity about the world and the expeditionary attitude. Only then can we explain that even if we find the origin of the solar system or of life, we have found that there is no limit to what we can achieve.
JUAN DIEGO SOLER
Researcher of the Institute of Space Astrophysics (IAS) in Orsay (France).
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