
In mankind's journey into the universe beyond the planet, the greatest leap was the
moon walk. Not only has there been no progress that size since, there have been few feats that were equal, or even comparable. (OK,
driving a car on the moon wins). Huge events, nonetheless, include
Sputnik, the
re-usable space vehicle,
private satellite launch and
robots on Mars. This week has seen another
milestone for the history book: landing a robot on a
comet.
It had
some problems, but what's cutting edge if it doesn't occasionally bleed? Maybe for the
next mission, they'll
reconsider the wisdom of solar power in the far solar system.
(Update Nov18/14) They were looking for organic molecules on the surface and they
found them. We'll have to wait until the sunlight gets better before we get any more detailed analysis.