For a scientific marvel it probably has no equal. The equivalent of hitting a bullet with a bullet. Yesterday, amid scenes of near hysteria at Space .H.Q. Europe, the Rosetta space probe touched down on a hurtling asteroid and managed to stay upright.
Sort of. It is in a precarious position in the shadow of a looming, grey colored rock, held in place by a couple of thru-bolts. It's gravitational weight one hundred times less than that of earth.(it could bounce back into space again given a small jolt)
What is all the commotion about? Well apart from the technical achievement of landing on an asteroid, this expensive little baby is supposed to unveil some of the hidden secrets of how the universe began. Did asteroids transport the first water droplets to earth? Are they part of far-off planets that had living microbes on them?
Do they consist of special metal and minerals that were generated a split second after the Big Bang. Are there fossils of space creatures riding on their crusty exterior?
The stuff of super-heated imaginations, allied with an almost limitless budget, to produce Buck Rogers fiction.
Meanwhile down on planet earth real life goes on. More mass shootings, more wars, more Ebola, more Middle East mayhem, more.....
Please land the Rosetta in Central Park New York and fix some problems there before we waste another billion dollars chasing rocks in space.
Jubilate.
Ian
