"Ambition" short promotes ESA Rosetta mission.

I have seen a few mentions of the trailer for this, and confusion about a release date. Well, it was today, and it turns out that Ambition is a short film produced by the European Space Agency to promote the Rosetta mission.

Starring Game of Thrones' Aidan Gillen and actress Aisling Franciosi, Directed by Tomek Bagiński.

It is absolutely worth a watch:

Ambition - ESA Official Site

Not sure if this can be embedded, I have yet to find it on YouTube, only a trailer for it. At the moment this is what plays when you navigate to the ESA's official site but I am not sure how long it will stay that way before moved elsewhere.

More information on the short can be found with the BBC article here.

Artistic and informative. Nice.

By the way, the landing of the Rosetta's probe (named "Philae") will be televised (live?) on November 12 on The Science Channel as part of that channel's "Space Week". I know the Science Channel can be seen in the U.S. and Canada, but I bet there are probably other similar TV channels elsewhere who will be airing the program.

Nice!

Certainly can't wait for Philae to land. That will be really cool to watch.

Cool for posting OP! The videos can be found on YouTube here:

Main feature:



Making of:

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

Artistic and informative. Nice.

By the way, the landing of the Rosetta's probe (named "Philae") will be televised (live?) on November 12 on The Science Channel as part of that channel's "Space Week". I know the Science Channel can be seen in the U.S. and Canada, but I bet there are probably other similar TV channels elsewhere who will be airing the program.

Press conference will probably be broadcast on the ESA Livestream channel, but updates on where to watch will be on blogs.esa.int....

To stress though, there are no video capabilities on the spacecraft so please don't expect any 'live video' from it! :-)

originally posted by: AgentSmith
To stress though, there are no video capabilities on the spacecraft so please don't expect any 'live video' from it! :-)

I never expect streaming video -- at least not until we get more bandwidth in our deep-space communications systems. Try watching Netflix on 56 kbps dial-up .

However, Philae does have a camera, which will be imaging the surface sometime soon after touchdown (and it needs to do it relatively quickly, considering Philae's batteries will last less than three days). I also think I heard that Philae will be imaging the comet during the 7-hour landing process. We will probably see a few of those relatively quickly, probably as the data is received.

Forgetting Philae for a moment, there is still plenty of great science ahead for the Rosetta spacecraft itself (Philae's "Mothership"). Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenk will be heading closer to the sun over the next year, and Rosetta will be following it the whole way, watching/investigating as the Sun heats the comet up. It should be interesting to see images and data that are collected up close to a comet as it "comes to life".

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
I never expect streaming video -- at least not until we get more bandwidth in our deep-space communications systems. Try watching Netflix on 56 kbps dial-up

.

Haha! I'm glad some people realise, I constantly facepalm when I read people wondering why we don't get live video streams from deep space missions 'when we had it in the 60's for Apollo' lol!

However, Philae does have a camera, which will be imaging the surface sometime soon after touchdown (and it needs to do it relatively quickly, considering Philae's batteries will last less than three days).

Actually while the batteries will last about 64 hours without charge, as long as they can recharge with the solar panels it is hoped Philae will last until March 2015 - and then it will more than likely fail due to the environment becoming too hostile for the craft. :-)

I also think I heard that Philae will be imaging the comet during the 7-hour landing process. We will probably see a few of those relatively quickly, probably as the data is received.

One hopes so!

Forgetting Philae for a moment, there is still plenty of great science ahead for the Rosetta spacecraft itself (Philae's "Mothership"). Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenk will be heading closer to the sun over the next year, and Rosetta will be following it the whole way, watching/investigating as the Sun heats the comet up. It should be interesting to see images and data that are collected up close to a comet as it "comes to life".

Quite, while Philae itself is very cool a massive amount of data can be gathered by Rosetta itself. Philae is almost a 'bonus' if you like.

originally posted by: AgentSmith
Actually while the batteries will last about 64 hours without charge, as long as they can recharge with the solar panels it is hoped Philae will last until March 2015 - and then it will more than likely fail due to the environment becoming too hostile for the craft. :-)

Thanks for the info. I've been too busy to really follow Rosetta/Philae as much as i would like, but I did remember reading a blurb about the batteries only lasting 64 hours, and that being the length of the "nominal" mission for Philae. It's good to hear that they have faith in the batteries recharging past the 64 hours to extend that nominal mission.

Remember, the nominal mission for the twin Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) was only 90 days, but Spirit lasted over 6 years, and Opportunity is still going after more than 10 years. I realize that the comet's environment will probably be an issue for Philae's lifespan more than anything else, especially as the comet wakes up as it approaches the Sun, but here's hoping that they built Philae to be robust -- robust enough that maybe it will surprise us.

a reply to: AgentSmith

Thanks for that!

I think when initially posted it was still too new for YouTube.

Regardless of there not being live video from Philae itself, this will still be an incredible feat and I, for one, will be watching whatever they end up having live during the landing.