“It’s not always the case, not all years are like this.” That said the man with the air of a retired professor and funds bottle glasses as he spoke to us from his chair to whom we were huddled in a corner. The hall was packed and we had given up our seats when they began to get the hundred invited to the event. In the lobby of the building waiting cameras a couple of media and had opened an adjoining room who had brought their children to watch the broadcast of the arrival of a probe to a comet for the first time in history.
From early work at the Institute for Space Astrophysics (IAS) was upset with the imminent arrival of Philae probe to Comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but that date did not come as a surprise. Since January 20, when Rosetta left his two and a half years of hibernation, the information on this mission began circulating throughout the IAS directly from the third-floor lobby, where rests for a scale model of Philae.
In May had reached the images revealed that the comet was shaped like a rubber duck and not a ball, as expected. In September we received photos of the approach to the comet. A surface cratered and landforms like something out of a dream of Yves Tanguy looked.
On board the spacecraft, which at that time was given to reach the comet, was the Consert instrument (which then produced the measurements that were disseminated as the “sounds” of the comet) and CIVA camera would send to Earth the first images from the surface. Both instruments were developed in the IAS, where I had come for more than a year to work as a researcher at the Planck satellite data. So, almost by accident, that day was in the middle of one of the centers of information on which the eyes of the world rested.
While landing time approached, room care was and forth between screens, including hallway conversations and presentations where we remembered every step of what would happen when Philae hit the comet.
The man in every conversation was Jean Pierre Bibring, one from the creators of Philae and researcher at IAS, which was at that time in the control center in Darmstadt in Germany, probably with heart in hand after knowing that the propellers were set to Philae to the surface had not worked correctly. Still, the mission had proceeded and that morning probe Rosetta had separated from the vehicle they had traveled over the last ten years.
The clock read 4:00 pm in Paris. A 500 million miles from Earth, Philae should already be inn. The only thing that separated us from the big news was the average time it takes to get the signal from the place of the solar system. The action happening far away from us a panoramic photograph take much longer to arrive. Just expect a change in electrocardiogram type lines marking signals to start celebrating.
The most experienced remembered their expectations before the first man on the moon in 1969. The younger vaguely remembered Mars Pathfinder landing in 1997. On the other side of the room the tension on the faces reminded me hours before the release of balloons in Antarctica, when the butterflies in the stomach were made of lead and a million ideas feel boil just behind the eyes.
He began to fall night brings premature autumn in Europe. From my corner, I kept an eye on the screens and the other on the mobile phone from which the events were reported to The Spectator and other media in Colombia.
At 4:33 pm the rumor tens of talks was declining. The hall became strangely silent. The time had come but still knew nothing of Philae. The display of one of my colleagues a straight line on a graph is transformed into a peak, and with a leap announced the arrival of Philae. Then we would replicate in the control center in Darmstadt, where we saw scientists embrace and give cheers. A wave of happiness across the room and everyone celebrated what allowed our imagination.
My phone started to vibrate and while going to talk to Gustavo Gomez, Caracol Radio, I asked my colleagues if everything had went well and I responded with the thumb pointing upward. His voice cracking with emotion I reported that we were in the comet while my smile and someone opened a bottle of champagne. But while repeating over and over that we had achieved, I saw the colors disappeared from the face of those who stood before her thumb and her gaze was fixed worriedly now on the screen of your computer.
What happened exactly in the rest of that afternoon we heard only 24 hours later when the photographs taken by Rosetta revealed what was already feared from the telemetry signals. The barbs to hold the comet had not worked and Philae had rebounded to nearly a mile from the surface and then landed on a precipice where light could not reach its solar panels, preventing recharge your batteries.
While the first images of the comet’s surface began to take the media and social networks, Philae scientists working against the clock to collect data within 48 hours of power he still had his primary battery. That is the information that is now being analyzed and although Philae still in hibernation, there are great chances that your batteries can be recharged and re-start operations in the coming months when the comet is further closer to the sun. The mission has so far been a success and setbacks do nothing but praise the achievement of all the scientists who worked on it.
What does it mean for humanity Philae landing? What does a scientific milestone, a technological achievement or another step in our understanding of the universe? Almost a month after the arrival of Philae Comet, the daughter of one of my lab partners spent the day at our offices. He sat on one of the desks to get a draw and pulled a holster aquamarine a bunch of crayons and plastic model of comet 67P / CG we got as a gift on landing day. When anyone asked him what that was, she answered him, “It’s a comet. Where we already were. “
* Colombian Astrophysical
