
Philae Lander: “It’s time for me to say goodbye” - aurhum
https://twitter.com/Philae2014/status/757938537803153408
======
supercoder
Seems Twitter's increasing abuse problems are causing everyone to leave.

~~~
dexterdog
Some people don't even get the choice.

------
Vexs
This was one of the more fun sciencey things to keep track of, and it brought
space back into the media for a short time. Godspeed lil' probe.

Anyway, I kind of wish people would edit this style of title to something like
"It's time for me (Philae Lander) to say goodbye"

~~~
nostrademons
Reminds me of the days of
[http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/](http://spiritrover.livejournal.com/) and
[http://opportunitygrrl.livejournal.com/](http://opportunitygrrl.livejournal.com/)

~~~
mind_heist
Ah! thanks for this, I had no idea this existed . I have been reading Steve
Squyres' \- Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red
Planet for the past few months , and its pretty awesome. He gives a really
wholesome perspective of what it took to get a ride to the Red Planet. I 'm
going to read these journals kinda .. in parallel to the part of the book
which explains post landing incidents.

------
JorgeGT
Please ESA, do not make another of those cute Rosetta & Philae comics for
this. :_(

~~~
mind_heist
They tweeted the old ones though :
[https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/758231095829729280](https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/758231095829729280)

------
austinjp
Reading this genuinely made me tear-up! It also gives me hope though. We seem
to be slowly, sloooowly growing our way off Terra.

------
Pinatubo
To honor this occasion I'm wearing a shirt featuring ladies in bikinis.

------
bitwize
"Was I a good probe? I know that I didn't quite stick the landing, but
everything turned out all right in the end... right? That's all I ever
wanted."

------
bhrgunatha
I wonder how much impact the UK's withdrawal from the EU will have on the ESA
and future missions.

~~~
neoeldex
I think the UK will continue to participate in the ESA, since they are
different organizations for different purposes.

~~~
pavlov
A substantial chunk of ESA's budget comes through EU. So the cost of UK's
membership in ESA might increase, as they won't be participating through EU
anymore.

That's the kind of thing that is hard to justify to Brexiteer voters though...
"Now that we're rid of the EU, we have a unique opportunity to pay more tax
money to other intergovernmental organisations!"

~~~
base
Here you have ESA funding by source:
[http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/01/ESA_budget_2...](http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/01/ESA_budget_2016)

EU funding doesn't go to the main funding budget of ESA but to other
activities like the Galileo satellite system.

~~~
pavlov
Here's a source specifically for the EU portion of the ESA budget:

[http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU](http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU)

"Some 20 per cent of the funds managed by ESA now originate from the EU
budget."

I'm not disagreeing with you, but it seems unlikely that UK just won't
participate in that 20% of ESA activities anymore. So they'll have to
renegotiate the membership fee to account for that.

~~~
throwaway049
It might not need a renegotiation as such, just a direct payment of the same
amount as previously went via the EU account.

~~~
pavlov
Britain can't unilaterally decide to do that. So, a renegotiation is needed.

That's a big problem with Brexit. Some highly visible supporters promoted the
idea that Britain will simply be able to dictate new and more favourable terms
for everything that happens through the EU framework currently.

It's essentially the same as what Trump is saying -- "I'll deal with China. I
know how to make deals. I'll make a great deal" \-- With no specifics on what
the deal would be and why the other side would accept it.

------
mind_heist
Its heart breaking to see these missions come to an end though they are all
planned only for a few weeks in the first place. I m really glad that Philae
came along this far , this was a really really complicated mission - Right
from soft landing on the comet nucleus( remember the previous attempts in
getting to a comet were impact probes) , loosing that one thruster prior to
detaching from Rosetta , having troubles with primary & second batteries ,
going into safe mode , hibernating and re-awaking again , constant absence of
sunlight to recharge batteries and all the delay in receiving signals back
from Rosetta - This must have been one heck of an emotional ride for all the
involved engineers and scientists. Mad Respect !

I m not sure if Philae conducted all the originally planned experiments or not
, Would love for someone to comment on that.

And I love what message they had in the final video update, - now that they
shut down the communication module of Rosetta that would talk to Philae - all
those power would be used to conduct other experiments ! They managed to throw
in some positivity there.

------
Aaronn
And now it has been turned off, here is a video they made:
[https://twitter.com/DLR_en/status/758341091070476290](https://twitter.com/DLR_en/status/758341091070476290)

------
brianpgordon
I thought the Philae lander was incommunicado anyway because it landed in
shadow and its batteries ran down. Shutting off the system which is supposed
to communicate with it doesn't really seem like a milestone.

~~~
trose
They definitely got it back online. It ended up getting enough sun to heat
back up and get it's batteries juiced.

