How a comet can inspire a generation

In the middle of November – I hardly need remind you – the human race made a historic, if rather bumpy, landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The first time such a ‘soft’ landing had been attempted.    As I followed the dramatic events of the Rosetta mission unfolding I have say I felt entirely privileged to bear witness. There was a tangible sense that something genuinely astonishing had been achieved. A feeling that, in general, was mirrored by the general public. I’d like to think that the naked facts were impressive enough to inspire this; but I rather suspect that wasn’t the case. When it comes to space exploration, it seems analogy trumps fact every time. And it really has been analogy silly season in the popular press over the last few weeks. It was, they said, “like landing a balloon in a city on a windy day with your eyes closed”. Like “hitting a golf ball three times around the Earth and managing to get a hole-in-one”. Like, and this is a personal favourite, “trying to guide a blind fly to the moon and then land it on a recently fired bullet”. It’s the ‘recently fired’ that gets me most. As if to suggest it wouldn’t be impressive enough to just land a blind fly on bullet fired, say, 2 seconds ago…no no no, that simply won’t do, we couldn’t possibly be dazzled without a clear grasp of just how current the bullet firing aspect of this confused scene really is.

As I followed the dramatic events of the Rosetta mission unfolding I have say I felt entirely privileged to bear witness. There was a tangible sense that something genuinely astonishing had been achieved.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of a well-placed, well-constructed analogy – and on this occasion I have to confess I succumbed. Late on the night of the landing, a little tired and emotional it has to be said, I found myself talking to a few equally tired and emotional characters and, mid-analogy (…don’t ask, as I recall it involved tadpoles and oceans and individual plankton), I realised there must be a better way to sum up the sheer majesty of it all. And, of course, there was. I regained my composure, looked them square in the eye and told them that sending a fridge sized space probe on a 10 year journey of 6.5 billion km to land on a rotating irregularly shaped comet travelling at 40,000mph which also happens to be one of the oldest objects in our solar system so that we can understand the very origins of humanity is…exactly as impressive as it sounds. And so to all the scientists and engineers involved I say thank you. Thank you for the decades of meticulous planning and skilful work. Thank you for the vision and audacity to see it through. And thank you most of all for the inspiration – for the realisation that the facts of the matter needed no window dressing; that the truth is often at its most powerful ungarnished. What you have managed to achieve will, I guarantee, inspire a generation to think again about the scientific career they may have written off and solidify the convictions of those already hooked. You have reminded them, and me, what humans can do when we really try.