Tomorrow we land on a Comet for the first time.

[Bouncer]

Kind of sad to me that this isn't bigger news.

Video: The Rosetta spacecraft mission: an animated journey to the comet - Telegraph

The Rosetta mission will be one of the most extraordinary achievements in space history and could answer important questions about the origins of life on earth.

Put simply, scientists are attempting to land on a comet.

The spaceship Rosetta left Earth in 2004 and has been chasing 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the last decade.

In August it finally caught up with the speeding comet and has spent the last few months studying the lump of rock and looking for a suitable landing spot.

On November 12 Rosetta will release a landing probe – called Philae – which will drop down to the surface. It is the first time a soft landing has ever been attempted.

[Mr I]

Your a true space cadet

[Bouncer]

Watch ESA's Rosetta spacecraft send a lander to a comet

[Bouncer]

Rosetta's comet sings a mysterious 'song' › News in Science (ABC Science)

[TKD]

The sound is so awesome to hear. To stand outside, look into space and listen to it. Feels life space is talking to you.

[Bouncer]

Aaaand the thing is already dead. Fuck. They are trying their best to paint a pretty picture about what it did achieve but the fact is it was a pretty big failure.

It landed where it was supposed to but the harpoons that were supposed to fire and lock it into place didn't fire. It bounced off the surface and landed in the shadow of a cliff. It was supposed to get 12 hours of sunlight per day and it ended up with only something like 45 minutes. Thus the batteries have now died.

It's a great achievement to even land on a comet but after 15 years of work, waiting, and 300 million miles of travel I have no doubt that the scientist and engineers who worked on the project are hugely disappointed. This project will be used against science and space travel as a way to say "i told you so" by the people who think money should be spent elsewhere. Shame.

[henry]

yeah terrible circumstances.

Still pretty impressive that it launched so long ago and still managed to land on it.

I imagine the tech is much more advanced these days so our expectations should be that of the time it launched not now.

[Bouncer]

Organic molecules detected on comet http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30097648