1740: Rosetta
| Rosetta |
 Title text: I WONDERED why he kept asking whether we thought the impact speed was too low. |
Explanation
On the day this comic was posted (September 30th 2016), the Rosetta mission ended with the final descent of Rosetta onto the comet 67P. Landing Rosetta on the comet gave the scientists (Ponytail, Megan and Hairy) a chance to collect extra data from very close to the comet, using the spacecraft's powerful sensors.
Cueball however assumed that the landing was a "kinetic impact" mission to deflect a comet that was on a collision course with Earth. A similar scenario (but using a nuclear weapon implanted inside of the asteroid to deflect it) was depicted in the 1998 film Armageddon, of which Cueball is apparently a fan. Armageddon is a high-throttle action movie, infamous among NASA employees for its incredibly liberal application of artistic license. IMDb has a list of factual inaccuracies.
In reality, at the time Rosetta landed, 67P was already leaving the inner solar system and was a long way past Earth. It will return to the inner solar system in around 5 years' time, but its orbit will not pass close to the Earth in any foreseeable time.
Also, as the title text hints, Rosetta's speed was only 90 cm per second relative to the surface at the moment of impact (or about 2 mph/3.25 km/h; the speed of a slow walk), while the comet was traveling at 14.39 km/s. Given that Rosetta only weighs a couple of tons (or six horses), and 67P weighs nearly 10 billion tons (or 22 billion horses), Rosetta's landing will have no actual measurable effect on the comet's momentum.
Rosetta (and its lander, Philae) were previously the subject of the comics 1402: Harpoons and 1446: Landing, and were mentioned in 1461: Payloads, 1547: Solar System Questions and possibly 1621: Fixion.
Transcript
- [A control room with Megan and Hairy sitting on stools in front of an opposite desk with computers. Hairy has his arms in the air. Ponytail is standing between them with Cueball, she is watching Megan and he is looking at Hairy.]
- Megan: Signal lost.
- Megan: Rosetta has impacted the comet.
- Ponytail: Good work everyone.
- Hairy: Woooo!
- [Zoom on Ponytail, still looking at Megan and Cueball who has turned towards Ponytail.]
- Cueball: So.
- Cueball: Do you think we deflected it?
- [Ponytail turns to Cueball as does Hairy who turns and looks away from his computer.]
- Ponytail: Huh?
- Cueball: Did we hit the comet hard enough to deflect it away from Earth?
- [In a frame-less panel Ponytail talks with Cueball.]
- Ponytail: That... Is that what you thought we were doing?
- Cueball: I just assumed...
- [Megan enters whispering in Ponytail's ear, holding a hand up to her mouth. Ponytail still looks at Cueball who raises his arms up in the air.]
- Megan: He's a huge Armageddon fan. Let him have this.
- Ponytail: Okay, fine.
- Ponytail: Yes! We did it! The Earth is saved!
- Cueball: Wooo!
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refresh comments!Discussion
- Hairy's Woooo has four o's but Cueball's Wooo has only three o's. Rtanenbaum (talk) 14:41, 30 September 2016 (UTC)
- Armegeddon actually had no kinetic impact. The plot device was a bomb drilled into the surface and detonated. This did deflect the comet by splitting it on half along a fault, causing the two pieces to miss Earth.162.158.75.100 17:04, 30 September 2016 (UTC)
Hasn't the fact of simply being in orbit already caused a change in the trajectory? Does impact make any difference? 108.162.216.111 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Technically, yes, but the effect is so small it may as well not exist. 108.162.218.239 01:56, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
- Yes, the gas(?) expelled from Rosetta in order to accelerate it toward the comet leaves the comet/Rosetta system NotLock (talk) 02:33, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
Question: Why, if the purpose was to collect more data from the comet, was the signal lost, and why are the characters treating this as a good thing? Wouldn't we want a signal from Rosetta in order to transmit the data she gathers? NotLock (talk) 04:01, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
- Rosetta has been in orbit around the comet since 2014, gathering data. It sent its lander Philae down in November 2014. This was always the intended ending for the orbiter itself. Miamiclay (talk) 04:38, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
- I think the characters are celebrating because Rosetta impacting the comet (which coincides with the signal being lost) means the mission has been completed.108.162.237.242 11:51, 5 October 2016 (UTC)
Just watched an ESA clip, someone did actually go woooo. https://youtu.be/GNoJz50YNJI?t=1m28s 108.162.246.110 10:25, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
The effect of impact may be small, but it will be multiplied with time. It might easily be measurable next orbit, and possibly be enough to "save Earth" after 10 orbits. If the 67P would actually be on trajectory colliding with Earth in 10 orbits, obviously. -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:30, 2 October 2016 (UTC)
- Let's see. The impact was 2E-2m/sec and the masses are 3E6g and 1E13g, so delta V is 6E-9m/sec. Ten orbits is 2E9sec, so the change in position would be 12m. However, it might be in an orbit stabilized by Jupiter, or an in unstable orbit, in which case the change could be substantially different; impacts near aphelion or perihelion will also have nonproportional affects. I would guess that it is on the order of the uncertainty of the position and orbit.Matchups (talk) 11:31, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
Reading this again in 2024 with the knowledge of Nasa's Dart mission, it appears cueball has been vindicated. 172.71.10.82 13:11, 2 November 2024 (UTC)
