One of the many photos the European Space Agency robot spacecraft Rosetta has taken of Comet 67P, with which it rendezvoused last week.
It later dispatched a tiny lander to the surface, which unfortunately landed in a shadow preventing its solar panels from drawing enough ultraviolet to power its batteries for drilling samples and examining them. A good reason for stifling the green weenies and providing radioisotope power next time.
The whole encounter is a reminder of ScFi writer G. David Nordley’s good novella This Old Rock about a far-future family homesteading an asteroid to mine and sell its minerals.
UPDATE: Losing power from its shadowed solar collector the little lander is having trouble calling home. But Philae might revive itself next August when P67 nears the sun.
MORE: Stupidly, even NASA is backing off nuclear power for political reasons. But still fighting “global warming” like crazy for, wait for it, political reasons.
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