Ha – was just reminded of this 🙂
At some point in 2016, we made the customary certificates to thank everyone involved in making ESA’s Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko such a success 🚀🛰️☄️🎉
But given the amazing engagement & support we’d had from people all around the planet, I decided we should make one more 🌍
So this one’s for you – you all did very well, thanks 🙂🙇♂️👏
#SpaceScience #SpaceExploration #Space #RosettaLegacy #LivingWithAComet #Photography
And finally, my personal favourite, the avionics model of ESA’s Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with a model of its small Philae lander in the foreground.
The Rosetta model was used by the ops team from launch in March 2014, to arrival at 67P in August 2014, & during comet operations until September 2016.
It now lives in a special display box at ESOC, an emotional memory of perhaps ESA’s greatest ever mission 🚀🛰️☄️🙇♂️
Took these to Dénia in Spain 🇪🇸, & they all stayed there – thanks to those who came to my Rosetta talk, & who kindly bought the books afterwards 🙇♂️
And thanks to Christine & David Ord of the Costa Blanca Astronomy Society for the invitation, & the nice evening in town yesterday.
Next stop Lisbon later this week for another public talk at the Pavilhão do Conhecimento 🇵🇹
“Yes, I’m sure it’s a lovely projector, but where’s the HDMI port to connect my laptop?”
Doing a tech check for my talk about Rosetta in El Verger near Dénia on the Costa Blanca this evening 🇪🇸
I also think I’m coming down with a lurgy after travelling yesterday – I hope it’s not bad 😬🤞
Every single trip I take on a train in Germany these days, something is late, broken, or cancelled 😡
So every single trip, I have to build hours of margin into my schedule 🤷♂️
Such a massive waste of time & nervous energy 🙄
Heading to Spain today (hopefully 🤞), to give a public talk about Rosetta. It has been a while 🛰️☄️
In a slightly discombobulating turn of events, I'm preparing my first talk in years about the Rosetta mission, to give in Spain later this week 🇪🇸
It entails dredging up so many old memories, as well as updating old slides & revisiting websites I haven't been to for ages 🙀
Not least the "Where is Rosetta?" page, which shows the spacecraft's orbit from launch in 2004 to mission end in 2016 🛰️
Turn on the background music for the full déjà vu effect 😭
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Space Agency 🚀🛰️📡🪐✨
I'm privileged & honoured to have spent 15 of the intervening years working in the Science and Human & Robotic Exploration Directorates.
There are many great experiences on many missions working with many amazing people to share 🙇♂️
But 12 November 2014, the day that Rosetta deployed Philae to the surface of Comet 67P/C-G, will forever be my most cherished memory ☄️
And finally, a reminder that the #Rosetta mission had already been featured in another #GoogleDoodle in 2014, this one on the day of landing on 12 November.
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https://doodles.google/doodle/philae-robotic-lander-lands-on-comet-67pchuryumovgerasimenko/
Third, Facebook's 2014 summary video, also featuring the scene in the ESOC MCR when #Philae touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November that year. There is also a short animation showing the landing.
As with the Google video, this comes at the end of the sequence, underlining the event as one of the major global highlights of that year.
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Second & also from Google, the 2014 edition of their annual Year in Search video.
The full thing is 1m32s & pride of place is given to #Rosetta & #Philae at the end, featuring part of our science fiction film about mission, "Ambition", the scenes in the ESOC Main Control Room in Darmstadt on 12 November, & a voice-over from NASA's Jim Green.
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Mark McCaughrean