One Small Step, Oh Heck, This Is Huge.

We, here at Life Explained (#lifeexplained) would like to congratulate our fellow genius scientists from the European Space Agency for landing a craft, an unmanned drone, on a comet.   At 5:03 local time, (local to Germany, not the comet, we are looking into what time it was on the comet, a fairly important question as their is the matter of overtime (time and a half) if it was after their regularly scheduled shift) the Philae Lander touched down, making history.  Bravo, European Space Agency.

This was an impressive feat, to be sure.  To quote James L. Green, the Director of NASA's planetary sciences division, "How audacious!  How exciting!  How unbelievable to be able to dare to land there."  Well put, Director Green, well put.

It was not without miscue, two harpoons that should have secured the lander to the surface of the comet did not fire, so Philea may not be secured properly.  Despite the problems it was a successful, extraordinary accomplishment, and we applaud the hard working scientists and engineers who pulled it off.

All of these space events, all of these daring firsts, all of the excitement, potential disasters and tremendous successes made us long for the old days, when Americans were leading the charge into space, putting men on the moon, orbiting, flying, landing in huge splashes of enthusiasm and excitement.  Before the dark days of government shutdowns, spending cuts, and the garroting of scientific research, and achievement.

In an effort to balance the field, a little, we, here at Life Explained, have taken it upon ourselves to fund a manned mission to a comet.  It was expensive, but we feel it was worth the money.   We cannot concede scientific glory and advances to the rest of the world without a fight.

Here is our first picture from the Steven Spielberg/George Lucas Mission.

Way to go, Doctor Dawg.