It ran 60 hours worth of experiments and sent results home before entering standby mode.”"I’m a scientist as well, (and) when it comes to China wholesale CNC Universal Cylindrical Grinding Machine communicating about science I think in the past we’ve been a bit too harsh with the general public,” he told AFP.In the ESA animation, the little lander falls asleep on the cold, dark comet surface, clutching a blanket, at the foot of a cliff it had decorated with photos and newspaper clippings. The big question at the time was whether Philae would wake up again as the comet moved closer to the Sun."In a sort of coldblooded way, we need to make sure that people understand that it really is over,” said Mark McCaughrean, who has been closely involved in the mission’s public profile.It did, several times.Trouble is — many children, even some adults, have come to think of the machines as cute cartoon characters — a sister with her small brother bravely prodding and sniffing a comet and sending data back to Earth."We didn’t have to kill Philae. Philae has nearly 450,000 Twitter followers.Now the very people who gave birth to the endearing duo face a difficult task. "At the end of every videogame there’s a fantastic line that says: ‘Game over’,” he said."We’re duty-bound to play this role with the European public, to try and inspire the new generation,” added Fabio Favata of the agency’s robotic exploration directorate. They have sold T-shirts, hoodies and plush toys. Washing machine-sized Philae bounced several times before ending up in a shaded crevice, away from the Sun’s battery-charging rays.Running out of power, Rosetta will join already-spent robot lab Philae in an eternal loop around the Sun on the surface of their new alien world. "The emotion which we will all feel next week, I think even in ESA there will be a degree of the anthropomorphisation,” admitted McCaughrean.

Subsequent movies followed Rosetta’s journey, Philae perched on her head and jumping up and down as he insists: "Are we there yet Are we there yet ” The real drama came in November 2014, when Rosetta released Philae onto the comet surface."I must be frank, it was.. There were two protagonists, communicating with one another and cooperating on a decades-long odyssey into unexplored territory.”The fairy tale began in January 2014, when Rosetta "woke up” after hibernating for nearly three years to conserve energy on her 10-year journey from Earth to 67P — a veritable deep-space Sleeping Beauty.In many ways, anthropomorphisation was an obvious choice. He was falling asleep,” said McCaughrean. The signal will die as the craft’s antenna bends away from Earth.The communications campaign was conceived, ESA chief executive Jan Woerner said, to account to the European public "where their taxes go”. "We are now accustomed to see characters dying.After two years in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, hundreds of millions of kilometres (miles) from home, Rosetta will terminate its groundbreaking deep-space mission by touching down on the icy dustball.So begins the fairy tale adventure of Europe’s comet chaser and robot probe, steel boxes with charming cartoon counterparts and a global following of fans fated for heartbreak when the pair severs ties with Earth forever. Do these storybook heroes now die Rosetta and Philae’s exploits have made them rare science celebrities, each with its "own” Twitter account."I think there will be a lot of tears,” European Space Agency (ESA) senior science adviser Mark McCaughrean told AFP ahead of D-Day on September 30.They are made to exhibit emotions as well: affection, trepidation, courage and exhilaration

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