Editing 1446: Landing
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− | + | Frames of the comic began appearing at midnight ({{w|Eastern Time Zone|EST}}) on November 12, 2014 and updated every five minutes. Together, the images form a {{w|flip book}} which is shown here above. You can find the individual images by clicking on the latest image of the comic on xkcd (go to that by clicking the date above or find it directly at [http://xkcd1446.org xkcd1446.org]). | |
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic | + | This comic changes over time, tracking the progress of the {{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}} lander separating from the {{w|European Space Agency}}'s {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} probe to land on a comet. More info about it at [http://rosetta.esa.int rosetta.esa.int]. |
− | The comic presents the imagined anthropomorphic "thoughts" of the Rosetta spacecraft and the Philae lander (and occasionally other parties) during the hours approaching separation from each other, approach to the comet and | + | The comic presents the imagined anthropomorphic "thoughts" of the Rosetta spacecraft and the Philae lander (and occasionally other parties) during the hours approaching separation from each other, approach to the comet, and (so far) initial analysis of data after the apparent successful landing on the comet. Beginning at [[Media:???65.png|11:05:00]], the comic includes a "Status Report" in the lower right corner which summarizes the status of various interested parties and accomplishments, beginning with "Rosetta", "Philae lander", "Mission Control", "Comet 67P", and "Have we landed on a comet?". As events occur in the comic, more status summaries are added to keep track of the changes to the situation and the supposed emotions behind them. |
− | + | In many pictures a whale can be seen on the surface of the comet - often marked with a "?" as are almost all other parts of the unknown surface. There is also drawn a [[Cueball]] on the surface... Whales are also mentioned in the "Status Report" where they for instance may be listed as "calm" or "(probably) not in space". Dolphins and fish are later also mentioned there, commenting about the whales. The reference to whales comes partly from the fact that Philae brings along three harpoons, which on Earth have mainly been used to hunt whales; Randall previously brought up that comparison in [[1402: Harpoons]], suggesting that Philae was programmed to believe it was sent to kill the comet. | |
− | + | This could also be a reference to the scene described in {{w|Douglas Adams}}' ''{{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}'' which begins: ''Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.'' [http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/198068-another-thing-that-got-forgotten-was-the-fact-that-against The passage] discusses thoughts of a whale as it makes the inevitable journey to the planet surface. Another reason to believe there are references to these books is, that in another one of them, all the Dolphins leave Earth (before it is destroyed) and their last message to us humans is: ''{{w|So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish}}'' - which is the title of the fourth book in the series. | |
− | + | Shortly after release from Rosetta, Philae calls out 'Spaaaaaaaaaace'; this mimics the {{w|Portal 2}} 'Space core' who, on finally reaching space in the last scenes, gives the same elated cry. | |
− | + | US Scientists presumably wake up at 7:40 EST (13:40 UTC) and say "Bluuurghhh. What time is it?" to indicate their tiredness. | |
− | + | Randall credits https://twitter.com/elakdawalla in the xkcd page header, revealing the possible source of his near real-time data. | |
− | + | According to [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30026398 BBC News], the harpoons did not fire as planned and the lander may have landed, bounced off, and landed again. This would explain the change in "Do harpoons work on comets" from "YES" to "Don't know" at 16:35:00 and the change in "Have we landed on a comet?" from "YES" to "Yes, at least once" at 16:50:00. According to [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/science/space/european-space-agencys-spacecraft-lands-on-comets-surface.html?_r=0 The New York Times], radio contact with Philae fluctuated, which would explain the "Anxious", "Nervous", and "Confused" statuses around that time. Sadly the lander bounces three times and ended up in a place where the solar panels where mainly in the shadow. This resulted in the lander shutting down when it's own battery ran out of power after only 2-3 days on the ground. There is a small chance that the season on the comet will change so that the panels will later receive sun again. But it is very uncertain. However, in the few hours that Philae had on the ground, it still managed to analyze the surface and obtain allot of useful data - so that part of the mission was still a success already. | |
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The comic title was originally "???" (probably to not give away too early what the comic was about), but changed to "Landing" when Randall came on live at five in the morning EST. At that moment the title text also changed from "..." to "[LIVE]". It was also then that the timestamps' timezone switch. At 5:00 AM (EST) the time stamp in the picture naming scheme switched from EST to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}} as used in ESA's time keeping, resulting in a jump from [[Media:???53.png|04:55]] to [[Media:???54.png|10:00]] without actually any such delay between the two pictures. | The comic title was originally "???" (probably to not give away too early what the comic was about), but changed to "Landing" when Randall came on live at five in the morning EST. At that moment the title text also changed from "..." to "[LIVE]". It was also then that the timestamps' timezone switch. At 5:00 AM (EST) the time stamp in the picture naming scheme switched from EST to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}} as used in ESA's time keeping, resulting in a jump from [[Media:???53.png|04:55]] to [[Media:???54.png|10:00]] without actually any such delay between the two pictures. | ||
− | There were however a few pictures with more than 5 minutes of delay (about 11 times five minutes without an update in total during the "live" transmission). The update seemed to have stopped after 137 pictures at 17:15 UTC, 12 hours and 15 minutes after the first picture. (The first picture has number 0, so the last had number 136). But later, sometime after 17:15 UTC, the counter for the last picture was increased to 142 (143 pictures in total), so maybe Randall inserted 6 extra pictures later - however he must then have changed the numbers on the pictures, since the last picture | + | There were however a few pictures with more than 5 minutes of delay (about 11 times five minutes without an update in total during the "live" transmission). The update seemed to have stopped after 137 pictures at 17:15 UTC, 12 hours and 15 minutes after the first picture. (The first picture has number 0, so the last had number 136). But later, sometime after 17:15 UTC, the counter for the last picture was increased to 142 (143 pictures in total), so maybe Randall inserted 6 extra pictures later - however he must then have changed the numbers on the pictures, since the last picture is still the same now, but with number 142 instead of 136. It is thus now difficult to find out which pictures would have been added later. However, eight pictures were not included in the original table with the [[#Frame by Frame Breakdown|Frame by Frame Breakdown]] below. So it is must have been some of those missing pictures that where added later - maybe all of them, as the last three may already have been added before the last picture was released. But even 143 pictures at 5 minutes intervals only spans 11 hours and 50 minutes, thus there are still be five ''5 minute intervals'' without any picture. See which in the [[1446: Landing/Frame by Frame Breakdown|table]]. |
− | + | ==Frame by Frame Breakdown== | |
− | + | * Here is a [[1446: Landing/Frame by Frame Breakdown|link to a table]] with a frame by frame breakdown of all 143 pictures. | |
− | + | * Here is a [[1446: Landing/All pictures|page with all the pictures]] frame by frame. | |
− | *Here is a [[1446: Landing/Frame by Frame Breakdown|link to a table]] with a frame | ||
− | *Here is a [[1446: Landing/All pictures|page with all the pictures]] frame by frame. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[This transcript gives only the text of the | + | :[This transcript gives only the text in the last of the 143 pictures shown in the comic. That which is now shown when clicking to the comic on xkcd] |
− | :[Showing Philae on a comet | + | :[This is the from the picture with time stamp 17:15] |
− | : | + | :[Showing Philae on a comet] |
− | :Philae: | + | :Rosetta: Philae? |
− | :[Status report at the bottom-right corner | + | :Rosetta: Is everything OK? |
+ | :Philae: I landed! | ||
+ | :Philae: I'm on a comet. | ||
+ | :Philae: I'm OK and I'm on a comet. | ||
+ | :[Status report at the bottom-right corner] | ||
:Status report: | :Status report: | ||
::Rosetta: In space | ::Rosetta: In space | ||
− | ::Philae lander: | + | ::Philae lander: Landed |
− | ::Mission control: | + | ::Mission control: !!!!! |
− | ::Scientists: | + | ::Comet 67P: Landed on |
− | ::Have we landed on a comet?: | + | ::Whales: Calm |
− | :: | + | ::Scientists: [Wine] |
− | :: | + | ::Harpoons: Tricky |
− | :: | + | ::Dolphins and Fish: OK |
+ | ::Have we landed on a comet?: '''YES''' | ||
+ | ::Do harpoons work on comets: Don't know | ||
+ | ::Earth: !!!!! | ||
+ | ::Has anybody tried this before: Nope | ||
− | :[For the '''full transcript''' of all 143 pictures see '''[[1446: Landing/Transcript]]'''.] | + | :[For the '''full transcript''' of all 143 pictures see '''[[1446: Landing/Transcript]]'''.] |
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
− | + | [[Category:Dynamic comics]] | |
+ | [[Category:Space]] | ||
[[Category:Comics with color]] | [[Category:Comics with color]] | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
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[[Category:Animals]] | [[Category:Animals]] | ||
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