Philae has landed.

Well done ESA. Philae has landed successfully on Comet 67P. I expect lots of new updates and exciting news in the next couple of days

Fantastic news as far as the search into our origins go.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it NASA (humour)

Kindest respects

Europe

Kinda cool, but I still feel like it's a waste of money, time, and resources. That's just me. Congratulations to those who think this will save the world one day.

a reply to: Hellhound604

Congratulations ESA for such a advanced technological feat in current human history

originally posted by: WanderingSage
Kinda cool, but I still feel like it's a waste of money, time, and resources. That's just me. Congratulations to those who think this will save the world one day.

This is what humans do, expand their knowledge. No it won't save the world but then again no single action will specifically save the world only one single aspect of humanity : knowing our place in the universe and leaving behind the petty squabbles that consume so many millions these days. In that respect expanding our knowledge is right up there with an enlightened attitude.

Well done ESA....brilliant video of an enlightened future by the way

originally posted by: WanderingSage
Kinda cool, but I still feel like it's a waste of money, time, and resources. That's just me. Congratulations to those who think this will save the world one day.

It may "save the world one day" or maybe it won't. However, I don't think all scientific exploration needs to be about saving the world.

Sometimes exploration and discovery is done just because it's what we do as human beings; i.e., the "quest for knowledge just for the sake of knowledge" is one of the things that makes us human.


Edit to add:
'Yorkshire Lad' beat me to it

Absolutely fantastic news!!!!!!!

This is incredibly awesome!!

I am also excited for the amount of threads claiming they can see an "orb", "Space station", "life like rocks" or "Track marks" in the pics that come from this thing haha

Excellent, now i think i'll go make a thread about it.

a reply to: yorkshirelad

Why don't we expand our knowledge to create less pollution? Or on getting more eco friendly homes more cost efficient. Or helping more people with medical problems. There's a lot of knowledge we could gain that would help the human race right here on Earth. Not saying this isn't cool or anything or a milestone in space exploration, but I think we need to get our ducks in a row here on Earth before we expand. Just not a lot of practical use.

a reply to: WanderingSage

Why not do all that, and this?

There is no reason why everything you listed, and space exploration can not be at the same time.

originally posted by: WanderingSage
Kinda cool, but I still feel like it's a waste of money, time, and resources. That's just me. Congratulations to those who think this will save the world one day.

Its amazing how you could not see the big picture in all of this.

While much will be made about the science from this mission as it informs our solar systems formation and the evolution of our planet and its water and even astrobiology, there is a bigger more profound picture that you have missed.

There is little that will be remembered about our time 500 years from now but this will.

Nearly all of the popes, politicians, popstars and pundits and policy debates of today will be of little consequence to your descendendants. Your children's children.

Our world is the cradle of humanity and human civilization but every baby eventually outgrows its cradle. We begun that process in the last century.

Our Earth has finite resources for an ever expanding population. No matter how much wishful thinking, there will NOT be a brighter future without bold steps into the cosmos and to eventually populate them.

When you see sci-fi movies of big massive space colonies ask yourself a very simple question: Where do they get the water from?

The correct answer is not Earth.

The correct answer is "living off the land" so to speak.

Harnessing the ORIGIN of water on Earth in space from things like comets is a lot easier and cheaper than trucking it up from our Earth with rockets.

There is simply no practical way to get millions and millions of gallons of water off the Earth to supply such future colonies. It would be far too costly.

So humanity took a major step forward today towards that capability. This is not hyperbole. This is not sci-fi anymore. This is sci-fact.

We harpooned and landed on a comet.

We are planning to tow in an asteroid with a NASA mission.

These are signs we are becoming a Type 1 Civilization the definition of which includes the ability to manipulate objects within its solar system.

This day and others like it are the things which will be remembered because so few days like this unite the world in our time.

In space there are no national borders, we're one humanity, tugging at the covers in the crib today and walking throughout the house tomorrow.

Never lose sight of the big picture.

Awesome, can't wait to see if it takes pictures or gets booted off.....not to mention any disease it may bring back with it.

They just said on the live stream that they will have the first images from the probe in 1 hour. Damnit! I have to go to classes! Hopefully someone here can take some screen grabs or they post them on the website in real time.

ETA: Here is a link to the live stream

rosetta.esa.int...

It must not be live at the moment because they were showing the first picture it took after it landed.

a reply to: JadeStar

The big picture is the Earth is at the brink of world war, disease, famine, etc. Landing a hunk of metal on a comet does nothing for us. This comet isn't going to all of a sudden change the universe for us. If the human race keeps going the way it is none of us will have descendants in 500 years. I'd rather see that funding for this go to something way more effective in helping the Earth.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

Don't worry it's a rock with some ice most likely. Riveting.

a reply to: WanderingSage

Well, I happen to think it's pretty spectacular that humans have managed to land a probe on a freakin comet. Sorry if you don't share my enthusiasm.

originally posted by: WanderingSage
a reply to: yorkshirelad

Why don't we expand our knowledge to create less pollution? Or on getting more eco friendly homes more cost efficient. Or helping more people with medical problems. There's a lot of knowledge we could gain that would help the human race right here on Earth. Not saying this isn't cool or anything or a milestone in space exploration, but I think we need to get our ducks in a row here on Earth before we expand. Just not a lot of practical use.

I think we (as a civilization) are trying to do those things, too, along with this type of exploration/discovery.

Are you telling me that EVERYTHING you personally do is done in order to directly benefit society, or do you do also do some things that may not have an immediate direct correlation to benefiting society?

originally posted by: WanderingSage
a reply to: JadeStar

The big picture is the Earth is at the brink of world war, disease, famine, etc. Landing a hunk of metal on a comet does nothing for us. This comet isn't going to all of a sudden change the universe for us. If the human race keeps going the way it is none of us will have descendants in 500 years. I'd rather see that funding for this go to something way more effective in helping the Earth.

The amount of funding to do this was a small drop in the bucket.

There is no reason why humanity can not work on all that you are worried about, and do space exploration at the same time.

Tell me: why gripe about this?

You're worried about "wasteful spending"?

Look closer to home here on Earth: Military, Politicians, etc, etc.

Compare what is spent on them to this mission.

Put your gripe where it belongs: wasteful spending on new ways to kill each other.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Well if I have the time or the money to spend on frivolous things (which I don't lol) then sure. But if I'm at the brink of economic collapse or have more important things to take care of. This kind of thing isn't a necessity. Funding could have gone to things with more priority.

Its also useful practice if we need to land a ship on a comet with a diversion engine sometime in the future.

By 'diversion engin'e I mean an ion engine to shift a comet out of its orbit so it will not hit earth.