Ambition

Source: Image courtesy K. Churyumov

The photo above was taken by Klim Churyumov on 21st September 1969 using a big telescope in Kazakstan whilst on a comet hunting expedition with one of his researchers, Svetlana Gerasimenko. It is of course our friend comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko and this was our first glimpse of it when it was discovered by these two astronomers. They had no idea of course that 45 years later we would be sending a robot spacecraft to orbit and then land on it.

The European Space Agency have funded a short film that explores how important the Rosetta mission might be to us, the human race, in the future. It is a bit dramatic for my personal taste, but still good. Watch it on a big screen with the volume up if you can and press the enlarge button on the video controls at the bottom right of the video below:



So far, Rosetta has been an amazing success. Just like the guy says in the film, all sorts of things could have gone wrong before it arrived at the comet but amazingly they haven’t. It isn’t just about what we have learnt already and what we might learn over the next year whilst the mission continues. It is also about the fact that we’ve had the ambition and bravery to actually do something so difficult and get this far.