Rosetta & Philae

[protoserge]

I'm not going to start a philosophical argument, but we must realize these are different measures of success and it's irrelevant to say one is more successful than the other.

We landed on the moon. We brought the astronauts back safely. We landed on a comet. We got meaningful scientific data.

Both were successful in their mission.

[FrankJ]

Actually what was most inspirational to me in a lot ways was Apollo 13. Not successful on the top level since they just did a drive by on the moon. But the way the system was able to shift gears & get the astronauts home with a very broken space ship.

[Taylor]

When Apollo 11 happened, everybody knew about it and celebrated it. Kids, parents, grandparents - in America, at least, it was completely pervasive.

Last week, I asked my grandparents what they thought about Rosetta and Philae. They had no clue what I was talking about.

For capturing the world's collective imagination and pride, Apollo 11 was much much bigger.

Sadly, I cannot recall a single positive world-unifying event since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Olympic Games, maybe. Certainly not a STEM achievement. (I suppose Curiosity-SkyCrane came close, but it's still not the same)