Holy Toledo, 300 million miles from here , a wee probe has just landed on the surface of a comet

The term 'awesome' is overused these days, but this is truly an awesome achievement.

It is. And it took a decade just to get there.

And the landing gear is busted, so they're using a harpoon and ice screws to pull themselves in and land.

Harpoon and Ice Screws sounds way more Jules Vernish.

With a hand cranked winch?

Cranked by a robot wearing a handlebar mustache and a bowler.

im sure this is how V'Ger and Nomad started

The big question: can we resettle the whole human race there?

If you like to eat tar-covered snow.

I'll pack a lunch.

I still say that those probes must have run into Berserker doomsday machines by mistake.

Problem with harpoons - might have done a double landing but they won't know until Thursday...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30026398

To quote an old buddy:

"This rock is only about 4km across hurtling through space at just under 20 km/second (currently). They had to aim the probe at where they predicted it would be 10 years later and hit an object whose speed is constantly changing and traveling in an elliptical orbit. Getting there is one thing, then land safely, take pictures and send them back home."

That math and science stuff works pretty good, eh?

Not a rock. Blob of dusty ice.

Mmmmm... blob of dusty ice.

Thought this was neat.

The more I think about this, the more impressive it is (of course, I'm no rocket scientist...).

they launched it 10 years ago, aiming it at where it would be in space 10 years later.And landed it within 100 metres of the target site.
man alive people are clever

Baffling and awesome. So much of science these days makes looking for needles in haystacks look like child's play...

I'm not following this story closely, but you guys are making it sound like they made no course adjustments or correction since the day of the launch, 10 years ago. I suspect that's not the case.

Orbital mechanics, however, being what they are, are pretty well known, so I'd expect only minimal corrections to make the general rendezvous, and even then, maybe only one would be needed after the first 24 hours. Math is good stuff. I'm also not sure what they did in the last few hours to make the landing, but it would have been more hands on in those last hours.

The wonderment of landing on something going 80,000 mph, or whatever, also doesn't impress me since the craft and asteroid are going virtually the same speed, so their relative velocities are nearly zero (and there's no wind).

Jumping from a car going 80 mph onto a train going 80 mph in the same direction isn't more impressive than jumping from a car standing still onto a train standing still right next to it (except for the wind, and the consequences if you miss). Walking a tight rope 100 feet up isn't harder than walking a tight rope 6 inches up except for the wind (and again, except for the consequences if you miss.)

I'm still made happy by the (ultimately) successful landing.

Sure, sure

I'm even happier they/anybody are/is still doing stuff like this.