This Spacecraft Fairytale Will Make Anyone Excited About Outer Space

Rosetta is traveling to unknown lands. Her voyage has gone on nearly a decade. With her lander Philae, she's mankind's most intrepid explorer, headed for a mysterious destination called Churyumov–Gerasimenko. It's not a fictitious fairytale. It's science.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter, launched in 2004, will be the first man-made object to land on a comet. It's been hibernating as it makes its way toward an August 2014 landing on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. But on January 20th, the ESA will wake Rosetta up to begin taking photos and measurements as it flies by 67P and prepares for landing.

The great thing about this video is that it doesn't dumb anything down. The Rosetta story is super fascinating and plenty whimsical all on its own, and this ESA video makes it accessible for anyone to understand. And there's definitely a fairytale feeling about a hero and sidekick, way out there in space, exploring the vast unknownness beyond our little planet. Wake up, Rosetta, you're almost there. [H/T Nikita M]

Related While NASA's asteroid-capturing mission remains grounded from a lack of Congressional funding, a similar and equally ambitious ESA program is… Read…

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Crossword Puzzle: What Did We Learn About the NSA This Year?

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We've certainly learned a lot this year about the surveillance state. Thanks to the cache of intelligence documents leaked by Edward Snowden, as well as the hoards of legal records we liberated through our Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, we've had immense amounts of new information to consume and process. But how many of the details do you remember? It's time for a pop quiz.

And Dec. 21 just happens to be the 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle.

We've written about the word games top US officials play when defending the NSA's massive electronic surveillance system, so it felt especially appropriate to round-up the highlights in one big crossword puzzle. You can click the puzzle above for a larger image to print, or just download this PDF.

(A tip: Whenever we're asking for a name, we mean only the surname.)

1. NSA program that the government claims is justified by Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.

3. In its First Unitarian lawsuit, EFF argues the NSA is violating the First Amendment "Freedom of _________."

6. PINWALE, PRISM, NUCLEON, MAINWAY and MARINA are all part of this NSA umbrella program.

8. Abbreviated name for the DOD electronic warfare division led by 23-Across.

10. Member of Congress who offered an amendment to the defense bill to cut funding for the NSA's operations under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

11. Telecom corporation that whistleblower Mark Klein discovered allowed the NSA to tap into its system.

15. The NSA's British counterpart.

16. Senator from California who has long supported the NSA and is now offering a fake fix.

18. A global coalition of civil society groups say nations should adopt "_________ and Proportionate Principles" when it comes to electronic surveillance.

19. The Director of National Intelligence who gave the "least untruthful" answer to Congress.

21. Acronym for the law EFF used to force the release of thousands of pages of NSA-related documents.

23. Top ranking general at the NSA.

27. Email provider that shut down after the Department of Justice demanded access to its encryption key.

28. She received EFF's 2013 Pioneer Award for her work on the Snowden documents.

29. Senator from Oregon who, along with 26-down, has been warning the public about NSA spying for years.

30. Term for when an NSA worker uses electronic surveillance tools to spy on a romantic interest or ex-lover.

2. Term for telephone call records that includes when you made a call, to whom, and for how long, but not the conversation itself.

4. He authored the Patriot Act and says the NSA has stretched the law farther than Congress ever intended.

5. EGOTISTICALGIRAFFE and EGOTISTICALGOAT are both NSA terms associated with undermining this anonymity tool.

7. In October, the Stop _______ Us coalition marched in DC.

9. NSA codename for program that tapped into Google and Yahoo data centers abroad.

12. The NSA's computer tool, with dropdown menus and filters, for searching Internet activity.

13. Acronym for games like World of Warcraft that the NSA infiltrated.

14. The _____ Committee investigated the NSA over similar abuses in the 1970s.

17. Private contractor where whistleblower Edward Snowden worked (for short).

20. Airport where British police detained journalist Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, for nine hours under terrorism laws.

22. Presiding judge of the FISA Court.

24. US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are also known as the "Five ____."

25. Codename for NSA program to undermine and break encryption.

26. Senator from Colorado who, along with 29-Across, has been warning the public about NSA spying for years.

Republished from Electronic Frontier Foundation's Deeplinks blog with permission.

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