Today, the 12th of November 2014 is history. Today took place the first ever controlled touch-down of a space probe on a dirty ice ball. Philae lander is a robotic lander built by the European Space Agency to take pictures and to analyze the comet´s composition. The giant comet the size of central Paris has the name 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Imagining that these two giant boulders, the size of a solid Alpine mountain, would collide with the Earth is terrifying. The fact, that we are able to create and control technology to the extend that we land on other comets deserves no other exclamation than: "Respect to the human race". To my professional eye the comet with the Russian sounding name looks like 2 comets sticking together like two hand-formed balls of clay. Like all comets this one is named after their discoverers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko. To find out the molecular and mineralogical composition of the comet, is worth a lot to science.
The mission costs are close to 1 Billion Euro. It is an enormous effort mankind invests into space exploration. 4300 average Europeans worked the last 10 years solely to make this exploration possible. Like the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Constructors it is as if 4300 average Europeans spent all their income or work towards this project. In my eyes that is a huge commitment and accomplishment, which needs to be celebrated. I´m in to throw a huge celebration for the success of the first controlled touch-down landing of a human idea on a comet. To truly discover and invade space it will need much more investments from public and private sectors, therefore I believe it is important to celebrate every success to keep the Dopamine alive. Maybe Elon Musk, billionaire and investor in Space exploration (Space X) is in to throw a huge party. Nothing fancy, a couple of million USD would certainly do it - peanuts compared to the principal investment.
The mission costs are close to 1 Billion Euro. It is an enormous effort mankind invests into space exploration. 4300 average Europeans worked the last 10 years solely to make this exploration possible. Like the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Constructors it is as if 4300 average Europeans spent all their income or work towards this project. In my eyes that is a huge commitment and accomplishment, which needs to be celebrated. I´m in to throw a huge celebration for the success of the first controlled touch-down landing of a human idea on a comet. To truly discover and invade space it will need much more investments from public and private sectors, therefore I believe it is important to celebrate every success to keep the Dopamine alive. Maybe Elon Musk, billionaire and investor in Space exploration (Space X) is in to throw a huge party. Nothing fancy, a couple of million USD would certainly do it - peanuts compared to the principal investment.