Science Fiction and 'Littlefinger' Help Us Understand the Ambition of the Rosetta Mission [VIDEO]

[Credit: ESA/Platige Image]

The Rosetta mission is currently making history as the first spacecraft to not only "catch a comet," slipping into the icy behemoth's gravitational field, but it will also be the first to land an analytic robot on its surface. Will such an accomplishment be remembered in the many, many generations to come? The European Space Agency (ESA) and short filmmaker Tomek Bagiński seems to think so.

The new short film Ambition shows an intriguing exchange between two telekinetic superhumans in an utterly desolate wasteland - using their powers to shape the rock and ash around them to help illustrate their conversation.

And just what are they talking about? Why, that historic Rosetta mission of course.

The "master," played by Aidan Gillen - best known for his role as "Littlefinger, master of coin" in the hit HBO series "Games of Thrones" - is lecturing his young apprentice on the value of ambition and perseverance.

"And tell me, what was it all for?" the master asks, speaking of the Rosetta mission.

"Knowledge," his student replies.

"Yes, but we also wanted to show what was possible," he added, explaining how humanity "harnessed whole planets and their gravity" just to chase down a single comet.

"So many things could have gone wrong... So many unknowns. With the technology we had back then, we may as well have been shooting from a slingshot."

And that's not exactly wrong. Despite years of work, international cooperation and calculations, the Rosetta mission was a huge risk from the start. (Scroll to read on...)

"As Tomek Bagiński's short film Ambition makes clear, it is the essence of what it means to be human, to attempt difficult things, to reach for seemingly impossible goals, to learn, adapt and evolve," the ESA announced in a recent release

And it seems to be paying off.

"Rosetta is less than 10 km from a comet, and both are racing through space at over 60 000 km/h," added Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist. "Next month, we'll be attempting to land on the comet, and with our orbiting spacecraft, we'll continue to keep pace with the comet for another year or more, watching how it evolves over time."

As even described in Ambition, the end result of this mission will be to peel back some of the mystery of the Universe, discerning where all Earth's water - essential to all life - could have come from.