Rosetta Mision

[ferlew]

10 years, a £billion, is it worth it?

[Zacs-Master]

If we discover a little more about how life on earth began then yes. It's a bit Kate to be wondering now tho.

[Zacs-Master]

Late. Not Kate.

[ferlew]

Quite so.

[ferlew]

Ooops, mission.

[DTCwordfan]

I think so, especially given the way that they can pish money away in other areas, like building a $3bln wall between Mexico and the States - all the Mexicans need do is sail around it.

[bibblebub]

They didn't cram £1bn in banknotes into a cubby hole on the spacecraft when that launched into space; the money has gone to pay wages, companies to build the high-precision equipment and all the earthbound requirements. Far, far better to spend money for the purpose of obtaining scientific data than just be resigned to accepting ignorance and religious fairy stories.

[ferlew]

Didn't imagine for a moment they did BB.

[askyourgran]

I find it exciting, to see what is there, perhaps to see other galaxies from 67P. It's a lot of money and a long time getting there but it is an achievement of sorts to reach their goal.

[Zacs-Master]

Well 67p is a lot cheaper than £1b.

[douglas9401]

It's very interesting and exciting stuff but I can remember when you could just drive to Comet.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes but there was no intelligent life there Douglas!

[ferlew]

And to date, there still isn't.

[ludwig]

As bibblebub says, the money stays here on earth and gets recycled around various people, ultimately in the form of wages, so we haven't really lost it, just redistributed it.

[ToraToraTora]

yes

[mibn2cweus]

67P . . . that's more than a quadrupling of my personal investment!

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

[Old_Geezer]

Without question worth it. One major justification for our existence is to gather knowledge / understanding. And how much was that per human being on this planet ?

[ChillDoubt]

You can't put a price on the unquenchable thirst for knowledge......

[Hypognosis]

I am curious to know how they expect to tell the difference between truly primordial ice and bits of ocean splashed into space by impacts on planets after oceans had formed?

Primordial ice I am puzzled by, in its own right. I understand how oxygen is blasted out from a supernova but I thought this happens at the end stage of the star's life and its supplies of hydrogen are exhausted. How do the atoms nevertheless get together in such quantities as to give us the Oort cloud, our oceans, water vapour on the gas giants etc.? Would that chemical reaction actually look like a fire? (In the absence of gas pressure at similar levels to our lower atmosphere (sub-10,000ft) I doubt the reaction would even work).

[youngmafbog]

Definitely worth it, if only for the knowledge it may bring. However, as pointed out, it is not just wasted it recycles through the economy. In addition, in the main, technological advances which give us many of the 'gadgets' we use today are only advanced by war or space. No one is willing to pump the vast sums required into anything else.

DT, it is European not American.

[Peter Pedant]

I agree yooungma - Ith Mejico in the European Union - and are they all planning to sail here ?

Rosetta is a European probe/ jobby.

and damned well done I say