bite me Madam Ambassador / and Hungary too / Charlie Hebdo's migrant crisis cartoons / the remarkable people of Darmstadt

Charlie Hebdo

weekly satire/news magazine

Paris

Click to enlarge

Cliquez fiche pour le plus grande

... wish my French was good enough
I'd tell you so much more ...

......-- "Darling, je vous aime beaucoups"

The cartoons were posted to Tayyab's blog. Clearly Vleeptron Dude and Tayyab perceive Charlie Hebdo's publication of these cartoons in very different perspectives. Tayyab and most of his commenters post in English. The post and comments give an excellent peek at how the migrant crisis is painfully ripping scabs willy-nilly around the world.

The historic flight of refugees is also unexpectedly and unintentionally showing that the human race is filled with Ordinary People who spontaneously, often at sacrifice and risk, do wonderful things.

Within the last day or two, Lord Mayor Jochen Partsch of Darmstadt, Germany hosted a big downtown public party for the town's sudden influx of Middle East refugees, with volunteer townspeople feeding, clothing and entertaining the newcomers and distributing stuffed animals to the migrant children.

"Darmstadt" seemed a familiar echo. Then I remembered. When not welcoming desperate refugees, many Darmstadters work for the European Space Agency's successful Rosetta/Philae mission to land Earth's first robot probe on a comet.

This is a very interesting community: top-flight rocket scientists who welcome desperate war refugees.

This is the First Contact Vleeptron or Vleeptron Dude has ever had with Twitter. Twitter is a communications platform for a world whose deepest and most complex ideas can be compressed into 140 or fewer ASCII characters.  Then you tweet your compressed meme.

My nephew *A* explained to me that Facebook was a Time Suck.

* * * * * * *

Robert Merkin
Chesterfield, Massachusetts USA

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary H.E. Réka Szemerkényi
Embassy of Hungary
Washington DC USA

16 September 2015

Madam Ambassador:

In my parents' and grandparents' day, the government of Hungary chose to ally itself with the Nazi Third Reich, and partner in its mass murder of Hungary's Jews and Roma people.

Today Hungary's government is using riot police, military force and razor wire to block and deport refugees fleeing wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Asian and African nations.

While I recognize that hostility and brutality toward ethnic minorities, different religions, and foreign children, women and men are historic and well-known elements of Hungarian culture and society, now is the time for Hungary, by its government's clear actions, to erase its historic shame and evil, and make Hungary renowned among nations for its humanity and hospitality to the world's most desperate, imperiled and neediest.

I travel throughout Europe, and have long wanted to visit Hungary.

My desire to visit Hungary has vanished this month.

Its return depends entirely on the actions and policies of the Hungarian government, and, through its leadership, the political behavior of the Hungarian people.

I urge your government promptly to reverse its intolerable and inhumane policies.

Sincerely,

Robert Merkin

Humans land a probe and camera on a comet and send us back photographs! Congratulations Darmstadt!

Click to enlarge.

Late last week, the Rosetta space probe orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko detached its comet lander Philae, Philae descended to the surface of the comet, bounced roughly twice, and photographed what was in its viewfield. It sent the photograph back to Earth, to mission control of the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany.

I find it thrilling that, by pure coincidence, I am alive and sentient at the moment when human beings leave Earth, and send remarkable machines into space, and begin to explore the rest of the universe. We've been looking at the sky and the Moon and the planets -- and at comets -- and wondering what they are and what's on them for as long as we've been human. We've imagined ways to reach the Moon and the planets and other objects. Mere failure and frustration for 100,000 years never stopped us from wanting to see, to know, to travel there.

The surface of a comet -- we just got there. That's it, at the top, taken on 26 September 2014.

In 1986 I flew from Massachusetts USA to the desert of Australia to get the planet's best view of Comet Halley, and after two disappointingly overcast nights, I crawled out of my tent one night and there it was -- a broken white streak in the sky. Though I know much about it, though I knew its facts and figures and its fabled history, it was still very spooky. The night sky isn't supposed to have a strange thing like that. We saw it for many nights after that, and then the Alice Springs Astronomy Club (Yanks like me, mostly, who worked at the NSA electronic listening post called Pine Gap) let us look at the comet through their large portable telescopes.

Now we've sent a probe to a comet and landed on it to begin imaging its surface and drilling into it and analyzing its composition. The Rosetta/Philae mission hasn't gone perfectly. Its harpoons didn't fix it solidly to the comet, and when it finally stopped bouncing, it was in the shadow of a cliff. Philae gets its energy from solar panels, the needed power wasn't dependable enough, and now Philae's batteries are running low. (It may function well again when the comet passes near the Sun.) 

Most of the women and men in Darmstadt mission control have worked on this project for ten years or more. These are very smart people, very clever, very dedicated. They all chose that this is how they wanted to spend this long, intense block of their lives, to land cameras and other experiments, on a comet. They all knew the chances of succeeding were very iffy.

But they did it! And have begun showing what Rosetta and Philae see to us!

This is quite amazing. This is spectacular.

One Englishwoman astronomer screamed and shrieked and jumped up and down when Darmstadt knew Philae had landed and was sending back data. An Australian astronomer proudly showed off the colorful tattoo of the Rosetta comet mission on his calf.

This is a wonderful thing. I wish Philae and Rosetta and everyone who helped make it happen well and good luck. They've already thrilled me and made me proud to be a human being. (And that's a very difficult feeling to get for the last few years.)

ESA Philae lander's first selfie on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko! Wunderbar! Unglaublich! Hoorah Darmstadt!

Click image to enlarge!

European Space Agency's Rosetta probe about to land Philae on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko!

• → European Space Agency
• ESA’s blogs
• Blog home
• Rosetta web
• DLR Philae blog
• Editors
• About this blog

Posted on 07/11/2014 by Daniel

Rosetta and Philae landing timeline

A timeline of the most crucial activities related to separation, descent and landing on 11 and 12 November.

What does Philae do during descent? Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

It has been compiled with inputs from the Flight Control Team at ESOC and the Science Operations Team at ESAC and is accurate as of now. PLEASE remember: many of these times are subject to change and confirmation, given the extremely dynamic nature of this delicate and complex operation. We'll do our best to update this as we receive firm information, but on 12 November the live webcasts from ESA TV and ESA's social media accounts (Twitter!) will be the best ways to get the latest information.
Admittedly, this timeline is a little dense, but we thought it better to provide more detail for those who – like us! – are extreme Rosetta & Philae fans (and you know who you are!). We'll publish a lighter version in the main ESA website later today and there's also a high-level version in the press kit (PDF; page 63 or in SlideShare here). And for those who wish, here is the opposite: an even more detailed version as a PDF, or also in Slideshare.
Review the notes/legend underneath for acronyms (no space mission can succeed without them!). There's also a diagramme illustrating the delivery orbits.
ROSETTA AND PHILAE OPERATIONS TIMELINE AROUND COMET LANDING 11-12 NOVEMBER 2014

All times are subject to change and should not be assumed confirmed. Actual times may vary considerably. Please follow ESA TV, the Rosetta website, the Rosetta blog and ESA social media for the latest updates. All are linked via http://rosetta.esa.int
One-way light time (OWLT): 00h:28m:20s
Earth distance: 511 million km
CET/UTC offset: 01h:00m:00s
Updated 8.11.2014 to correct 12/11 04:28UTC event and add 01:00UTC event

Date	UTC on Earth	CET on Earth	Event
11/11	01:48:49	02:48:49	BOT ESA New Norcia (NNO)
11/11	03:10:00	04:10:00	BOT NASA DSN Canberra
11/11	12:25:00	13:25:00	EOT Canberra
11/11	13:40:00	14:40:00	BOT DSN Madrid
11/11	13:58:05	14:58:05	BOT ESA Malargüe (MLG)
11/11	14:00:00	15:00:00	Flight Dynamics Team at ESOC begin orbit determination procedure to accurately fix Rosetta's precise trajectory
11/11	14:30:17	15:30:17	EOT ESA NNO
11/11	18:33:20	19:33:20	Lander switch-on. Includes switching on Electrical Support System, which controls orbiter communication interface with the lander
11/11	19:05:20	20:05:20	Lander batteries and compartment heating ADS Tank (Active Descent System - provides cold gas thrust upwards to avoid rebound upon landing) opening
11/11	19:25:20	20:25:20	Lander Primary Battery conditioning start; about 28 mins
11/11	19:00:00	20:00:00	EOT DSN Madrid
11/11	19:30:00	20:30:00	GO/NOGO1 - Last full orbit determination; ESOC Flight Dynamics confirms Rosetta trajectory is correct
11/11	20:03:00	21:03:00	Rosetta starts slew to pre-delivery manoeuvre attitude (expected loss of signal)
11/11	20:20:00	21:20:00	BOT DSN Goldstone
11/11	20:43:00	21:43:00	End of Rosetta slew
11/11	20:52:20	21:52:20	Start Lander flywheel operation - provides stability during descent
11/11	23:25:00	00:25:00	BOT DSN Goldstone
11/11	23:40:00	00:40:00	BOT DSN Canberra
12/11	00:00:00	01:00:00	EOT DSN Goldstone
12/11	00:00:00	01:00:00	GO/NOGO 2(a) - Confirm telecommands to control delivery sequence are ready GO/NOGO 2(b) - ESOC confirms Rosetta is ready
12/11	01:00:00	02:00:00	ESOC uploads commands to control spacecraft for Lander delivery operations
12/11	01:03:20	02:03:20	Lander generates final telemetry (TM) on-board prior to GO/NOGO for SEP decision
12/11	01:35:00	02:35:00	(EXPECTED AT 02:35 UTC / 03:35 CET) GO/NOGO 3 - Confirm Philae is ready for landing
12/11	01:46:10	02:46:10	BOT ESA New Norcia
12/11	03:02:50	04:02:50	EOT ESA Malargüe
12/11	04:03:20	05:03:20	Lander - start of Separation, Descent & Landing (SDL) activities Start switching Lander instruments ON; ROMAP first
12/11	04:28:20	05:28:20	Rosetta - Start executing on-board commands for delivery operations
12/11	04:34:20	05:34:20	Start heating Lander batteries to separation temperature
12/11	06:03:20	07:03:20	Rosetta - Earliest start pre-delivery manoeuvre (thruster burn) Burn will be followed by loss of signal due to subsequent slew for separation Manoeuvre expected to be about 0.46m/s & about 6 mins duration
Date	UTC on Earth	CET on Earth	Event
12/11	06:35:00	07:35:00	Earliest GO/NOGO 4 - final decision to go for landing
12/11	07:03:20	08:03:20	Rosetta - Latest start pre-delivery manoeuvre
12/11	07:35:00	08:35:00	Latest GO/NOGO 4 - final decision to go for landing
	-	-	Following MVR, ESOC Flight Dynamics Team conducts rapid assessment of MVR performance to verify burn results
12/11	07:49:20	08:49:20	Lander - Switch on MUPUS
12/11	07:52:20	08:52:20	Start MUPUS operation and switch-on CivaRolis ÇIVA and ROLIS are imaging systems; ÇIVA makes panoramic images, ROLIS looks down
12/11	07:55:20	08:55:20	Start CivaRolis operation and switch-on SESAME (dust sensor)
12/11	08:04:20	09:04:20	Start SESAME operation
12/11	08:46:20	09:46:20	Start MSS (Mechanical Support System), which executes the mechanical separation from the Orbiter
12/11	08:46:20	09:46:20	Separation Motors ON
12/11	08:49:20	09:49:20	Start CONSERT Orbiter operation
12/11	08:50:20	09:50:20	Start CONSERT Lander operation
12/11	08:51:20	09:51:20	Start MSS sequence - internal autosequence to prepare for landing
12/11	08:53:20	09:53:20	Lander now on internal battery power
12/11	-	-	Screws in Separation Motors start to rotate and impart deployment speed to push Lander away, retrograde .21 m/s
12/11	09:03:20	10:03:20	PHILAE SEPARATION (Forecast; 94-sec window) Separation confirmation received on ground via ESA's NNO New Norcia station
12/11	09:04:12	10:04:12	Lander (ÇIVA) obtains first images of Orbiter (FAREWELL1)
12/11	09:06:17	10:06:17	Lander (ÇIVA) obtains seconds images of Orbiter (FAREWELL2)
12/11	09:12:17	10:12:17	Lander / Orbiter separation distance now ~100m Earliest autodeployment of landing gear and ROMAP boom antenna
12/11	09:25:50	10:25:50	Lander starts rotation of 14 degrees to stable landing orientation
12/11	09:43:20	10:43:20	Rosetta performs post-delivery manoeuvre Burn will be followed by loss of signal due to subsequent slew back to nominal pointing Manoeuvre magnitude to be determined on 12/11
12/11	09:47:17	10:47:17	Lander completes all post-separation activities
12/11	10:53:20	11:53:20	Acquisition of signal (AOS) from Rosetta Expected AOS; link with Rosetta now re-established
12/11	11:59:20	12:59:20	Start of stored data downlink from Rosetta & Philae
12/11	12:20:00	13:20:00	EOT DSN Canberra
12/11	13:15:00	14:15:00	BOT DSN Madrid
12/11	13:55:00	14:55:00	BOT ESA MLG
12/11	14:27:00	15:27:00	EOT NNO
12/11	14:58:57	15:58:57	Lander - switch-on Anchor & CivaRolis
Date	UTC on Earth	CET on Earth	Event
12/11	15:01:57	16:01:57	Lander - start imaging landing site and switch on ADS (Active Descent System)
12/11	15:07:02	16:07:02	ROLIS begins imaging
12/11	15:17:15	16:17:15	On board Lander, systems conduct final pre-touch-down operations
12/11	15:22:20	16:22:20	Start of Lander touch-down window
12/11	16:02:20	17:02:20	EXPECTED LANDING and receipt of signal (Forecast; 40 min variability)
12/11	-	-	Upon landing - start post-touch-down operations including: * ADS thruster fires for ~15 sec to avoid rebound * Harpoons (X2) fire to secure Lander to surface * Flywheel off
12/11	16:07:12	17:07:12	ÇIVA-P panoramic imaging on Lander obtains first images of surface and transmits same (forecast; depends on landing time)
12/11	16:07:14	17:07:14	Separation, Descent & Landing (SDL) science observations continue: Ptolemy & COSAC begin science gathering; data collected during descent and initial surface observations will be uploaded
12/11	16:39:39	17:39:39	Lander completes SDL operations; upload of science data
12/11	17:49:07	18:49:07	Lander begins First Science Sequence (FSS) Block 1; runs about 7 hours
12/11	19:00:00	20:00:00	EOT DSN Madrid
12/11	19:03:00	20:03:00	End of Lander/Orbiter first communication window
13/11	01:43:00	02:43:00	BOT ESA NNO
13/11	02:59:00	03:59:00	EOT ESA MLG

Keen for more details? Download the extended version of this timeline here.
Notes:

BOT	Begin of track
EOT	End of track
NNO	ESA - ESTRACK 35m New Norcia tracking station, Australia
MLG	ESA - ESTRACK 35m Malargüe tracking station, Argentina
LDR	Philae Lander
ROS	Rosetta Orbiter
LCC	Lander Control Centre, DLR/Cologne
ESOC	Rosetta Control Centre, ESA/Darmstadt
ROLIS	Rosetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS): CCD imager designed to return images of the landing site before and after Philae has landed
ADS	Active Descent System (ADS) - this system emits cold gas thrust at touchdown to avoid rebound.
BOT	Indicates when station is pointing & ready. Actual acquisition of signal may come only afterwards
DSS 25	NASA - DSN 34m Goldstone tracking station, California, USA
DSS 45	NASA - DSN 34m Canberra tracking station, Australia
DSS 55	NASA - DSN 34m Madrid tracking station, Spain
DSS 54	NASA - DSN 34m Madrid tracking station, Spain
MVR	Manoeuvre - a thruster burn to change direction and/or speed
MSS	(Mechanical Support System) is the lander side of Philae which executes the mechanical separation from the orbiter.
ESS	ESS (Electrical Support System) is the orbiter part of the lander. The ESS controls the orbiter communication interface with the lander. ESS itself operates as usual as power and data interface to the Orbiter.

Link to Lander science instruments via http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Lander_Instruments
CIVA, CONSERT, COSAC, PTOLEMY, MUPUS, ROLIS, ROMAP, SD2, SESAME

Labelled diagram indicating Rosetta’s trajectory from the end of October until early December. Screenshot from video. Credit: ESA

• Landing timeline 11/12 Nov

• Landing webcast 11/12 Nov

  #CometLanding webcast live
  

• Watch replay

  07.11 Online briefing: science & countdown to comet landing

• Ambition the film

  Click image to watch Ambition
  Read Rosetta: the ambition to turn science fiction into science fact
  

• Once upon a time…

  Rosetta and Philae prepare for #CometLanding

• Twitter

• Follow us

  

• Where is Rosetta?

  

• Data sheets

  Comet landing press kit 12 Nov - PDF
  Detail landing timeline - PDF
  Rosetta wake-up FAQ 20 Jan 2014

• Mission milestones

  Event	Date
  Launch	2 Mar 2004
  Earth swingby	4 Mar 2005
  Mars swingby	25 Feb 2007
  ... more

• 12 year voyage

  

• ESA website – images

  

• ESA website – videos

  

• our tag cloud

  #CometLanding #CometWatch #epsc2014 #NameJ #RosettaAreWeThereYet #rosettatour #WakeUpRosetta alarm aos art big burn coma comet culture and history dsn esa esoc estrack fct instruments jpl lander manoeuvre media nasa navcam ocm orbit philae pronounciation rosetta rosetta story science simulation tcm testing thruster timeline trajectory twitter vote wake-up water webcast

• search this blog

connect with us

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

© 2014 European Space Agency