Philae has woken up

[Smivs]

Amazing!
http://news.sky.com/story/1501893/europ ... s-woken-up

[Cody]

Yeah, I was reading that earlier - good news!

[ffutures]

Awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTqXEQ2l-Y

[Rxke]

Fantastic, isn't it?

People always asking why these probes are so costly, well, for starters they're designed to survive or cope with a lot of off-nominal (euphemism) situations, while being extremely limited in the mass they can use for function xyz...

[Selezen]

There was a woman on the news about it last night, saying that finding out Philae woke up is BETTER than her wedding day and BETTER than having kids.

I feel sorry for her family.

[Smivs]

There was a woman on the news about it last night, saying that finding out Philae woke up is BETTER than her wedding day and BETTER than having kids.

I feel sorry for her family.

If her family is anything like mine, I feel sorry for her!

[Disembodied]

There are millions of families, and only one Philae. Seriously, what's the more interesting question: "Would you like to see pictures of my family?" or "Would you like to see pictures of my cometary lander?"

[Astrobe]

Fantastic, isn't it?

People always asking why these probes are so costly, well, for starters they're designed to survive or cope with a lot of off-nominal (euphemism) situations, while being extremely limited in the mass they can use for function xyz...

I can't resist the occasion to point out that Philae uses a microprocessor designed around the Forth language. This design allows it to feature a relatively low transistor count, which is good in environments with heavy radiations; sensitive electronics have to be "harden" against cosmic rays.

One could say Forth is an alien language (compared with the classic ones like Javascript or C) but it offers flexibility, compactness and speed (esp. when running on processors designed for it, it's like Lisp on Lisp machines). To give you an idea, in order to add 3 and 7 you write "3 7 +". Imagine writing your OXP with this syntax!

I also can't help myself from being proud of it, like when the soccer team you root for wins.

[Cody]

Ahhh... little Philae has phoned home again!

[Alex]

Yup read about it with interest.
Now waiting to see what the wee falla sends back.
As a bytheway.
Who picked the name?
Philae?? Good grief.
I named any child that I would be expecting retribution.
Fill Eh
Fair enough there are heaps of others much worse.
eg. Bottomsnach..

[Cody]

Looks like they're gonna land Rosetta on the comet too, after a mission extension.

[Smivs]

Hmmm, seems to have gone to sleep again.

[Cody]

Rosetta is no more - it's been crashed into the comet.