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Rosetta, Philae and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Vicomt

By Vicomt
in Science & Spaceflight

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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

Posted
Posted
^That blog post supports the "closer to the sun" theory, BTW.

Exact quote:

future contacts are possible if the illumination conditions change as the comet orbits closer to the Sun,

The "if" part obviously being if they change to provide enough power to the solar panels.

I don't see them confirming any theories there. It's quite simple logic - comet moves closer to the perihelion.

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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

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Considering that it was such a crazy landing, I think Philae might get blown off of 67P when the coma starts being visible.

Read my brief of press conference today: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79190-Rosetta-Philae-and-Comet-67P-Churyumov-Gerasimenko?p=1541507&viewfull=1#post1541507

It won't be blown off. Or at least: It's very unlikely. (I dare to keep with my "won't be" statement)

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Aethon

Aethon

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NASA pushes out enough pictures on the first day that many news outlets devote the days' clickbait galleries to the topic, which is great for PR. The pictures don't need to be all that many or of great scientific interest; it's not even necessary that they all look great. But ESA has released too little material for this purpose; and by now, it's already becoming old news.

I've got to agree with this. I've been wondering about the paucity of images for some time. Today I found this.

http://news.sciencemag.org/europe/2014/11/tensions-surround-release-new-rosetta-comet-data

Science is the property of all of humanity.

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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

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It already is.

? There was no "blowing off" involved in anything what happened till now.

Science is the property of all of humanity.

Beautiful idea, sadly: That's not a real world.

NASA pushes out enough pictures on the first day that many news outlets devote the days' clickbait galleries to the topic, which is great for PR. The pictures don't need to be all that many or of great scientific interest; it's not even necessary that they all look great. But ESA has released too little material for this purpose; and by now, it's already becoming old news.

Wow, you got really short attention span if it's already an old news ;)

ESA already published images covering every topic of the mission and they publish more every day. Whatever this are images You want to see or not - that's a separate topic.

Yes, NASA is known to snap photos like crazy, they even get criticized for that (Cruiosity - the most expensive photobooth in a history of man kind), but NASA is NASA. They need all of that for money and because of the way their budget works. ESA isn't the one popping up with ideas like sending senators to ISS in a hope to scratch more dollars, they're much more stable and focused on scientific goals within their limited budget.

Which reminds me of...

Fox: "Why did America waste money landing on a comet?"

Scientist: "This is a European mission."

Fox: "Why didn't America get there first?"

Edited by Sky_walker
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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

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Correct. They're actually receiving data from the latest pass right now as we speak:

B2cMuN4IEAAq-Db.jpg

(this photo is a random telemetry display, not an actual data from the instrument, but people ask for photos, so I deliver ;):P )

Edited by Sky_walker
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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

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OK, it's done.

They switched Philae into standby mode with all instruments off, hoping to hear from it in future as comet gets closer to the sun.

Every instrument got a chance to run, despite of earlier obstacles - overall mission was a great success. Last photo they took was from ROLIS - camera pointing down the ground, making in total 3 photographs (previous 2 were already released) - only one photo from the ground was in original mission goals. But Rolis isn't the only instrument that benefited from this adventure - most notably ROMAP gathered tons of data that otherwise would be impossible to get, but bumping off the comet gave scientists a very unique opportunity.

Now it's party time in ESOC. And after that - they'll finally catch some sleep ;)

Edited by Sky_walker
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Aningaaq

Aningaaq

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Dusty? Tweet is just 19 minutes old :P

Cool. Just wanted to know what the news was...this was just the first tweet I've seen about anything CONSERT related since the landing.

Oh, there is this one too. They misspelled CONSERT xP

ESA Operations â€Â@esaoperations 36m36 minutes ago

Download link remains nominal despite v. low power. Waiting to receive #CONCERT data #cometlanding

Edited by Aningaaq
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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

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They got all of the data from CONSERT.

Now Philae is in standby, sends only one data packet each few minutes, low power on the batteries, there's some hope it'll weak up on a next pass tomorrow morning, but bigger hope for later on.

If power runs really low or down to zero programming allows it to recharge over a span of several days and then attempt contacting Rosetta though single packets. Orbiter will be listening all the time while passing over the area.

Edited by Sky_walker
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Aningaaq

Aningaaq

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Posted
They got all of the data from CONSERT.

Now Philae is in standby, sends only one data packet each few minutes, low power on the batteries, there's some hope it'll weak up on a next pass tomorrow morning, but bigger hope for later on.

Programming allows it to recharge over a span of several days and then attempt contacting Rosetta if power runs really low or down to zero.

".@Philae2014 now idling. Nothing happening on board. Power low. Loss of communication visibility expected at about 02:00 CET #cometlanding" Yup!

Excellent! I look forward to the results whenever they publish. I'm glad to see penetrating radar being used in this mission. Another response to "what can on earth can you possibly learn by shooting electromagnetic waves into the ground?" that I often hear.

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Laie

Laie

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Science is the property of all of humanity.

Now come on. It's not as if they put it into a box and bury it in a government warehouse. That data won't be old, outdated, or the least bit stale in six months' time. Besides, for most of humanity it's gibberish until a scientist makes sense of it. And I can well understand why the ones who put so much time into this already want to be the first to review the data. Six months is very reasonable. Short, even.

Still, a good handful of feelthy peektures to throw at the masses, now-Now-NOW, would have been nice.

Wow, you got really short attention span if it's already an old news

The kind of media I have access to / can afford will not bother to bring the pictures by the time they finally are released. Even if the pics were dumped on the media right now, it would already be too late for most.

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Sun

Sun

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Looks like Philae could run out of power any minute now.

From Wikipedia: "The limited sunlight (1.5 hours per 12-hour comet day) is inadequate to maintain Philae's activities, at least in this region of the comet's orbit; the initial battery charge cannot power the instruments for more than about 60 hours[32] without sufficient illumination of the solar panels​"

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