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

Vicomt

By Vicomt
in Science & Spaceflight

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Nikolai

Nikolai

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The harpoons did not fire, however the screws are in and there is no concern about its anchoring. The solar panels are producing electricity. Also, the thruster has a priming/perforation process that a sensor did not provide a positive affirmation that it worked, however the ESA confirmed that the thruster works and the sensor is most likely faulty (like getting a check engine light on your car when the only thing wrong is the indicator light itself).

Can you provide a citation for this? I've been looking for reassurances that Philae is anchored.

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Motokid600

Motokid600

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Posted (edited)
So where is the ksp Esa cooperation? Similar to ksp nasa.

I think there is/was a major opportunity lost in ksp viral marketing here. Asteroid redirect vs comet landing. Seems all the major game sub components were available for a quick win.

Just my opinion...

A missed opportunity maybe, but that is what Squad SHOULD start doing. Get a team of people to go to rocket launches and any major event to represent. And go even farther and turn all that into a YouTube series of sorts. Also more merchandise.

_______

Question... Whats happening with communications right now? Is Rosetta still in the dark?

Edited by Motokid600
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Camacha

Camacha

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I guess here too the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words rings true. Just photograph all you can, have a look and we will probably know a lot more.

Actually I'm proud to be a human

This. I think that the European diversity of nationalities again accentuated that these kinds of things transcend nationalism and enrich the world as a whole.

Edited by Camacha
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Camacha

Camacha

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Where can I get real time ( as much as it gets anyway ) information on this? Everything I search for stops after the landing.

You are probably not going to get much until the press conference tomorrow. You might try the Rosetta Twitter feed.

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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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Where can I get real time ( as much as it gets anyway ) information on this? Everything I search for stops after the landing.

Which landing? It seems that there were two.

During the news conference earlier today, ESA officials said that it first touched down pretty much where it was predicted to and when it was predicted to. The landing gear compressed by 4cm during the landing impact but the thruster and the harpoon failed to fire. The screws activated.

Unfortunately, subsequent to the landing, they started seeing variations in both the radio signal strength and quality and (when they could get meaningful data), they also saw variations in the power from the solar panels. From this they inferred that Philae had bounced and was tumbling and/or spinning. It continued to do so for 2 hours until it stopped. At about the same time, Rosetta went beyond the horizon and they won't reacquire it until tomorrow.

They are going to hold another news conference tomorrow (November 13th) at 13:00 UT. The live stream will be broadcast here: http://new.livestream.com/esa/cometlanding

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KerbMav

KerbMav

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I wonder how much effort it would have cost to include a much smaller probe, detaching from Philae a few minutes before the landing. Just some gyros, batteries, a camera, an antenna and something to detect the position of Philae via radio, so the gyros can align the camera to observe the landing.

This would have been impractical for a landing on Mars, but as the landing on 67P was very slow ... ?

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Sky_walker

Sky_walker

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Posted (edited)

First image confirming that Philae is on the surface:

Welcome_to_a_comet_node_full_image_2.jpg

These are two images from the panorama. Looks like terrain is extremely uneven, and Philae landed tilted, between large boulders (Philae itself is 1m box, so these boulders look to be around half a meter, perhaps more)

Large: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/Welcome_to_a_comet

Edited by Sky_walker
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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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First image confirming that Philae is on the surface:

That's excellent news! I was worried that they wouldn't be able to reestablish contact with it.

Is there any indication where it ended up in the end? Presumably the comet was rotating under it during its (as many as) 2 bounces?

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TMS

TMS

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So, given that the harpoon failed and it bounced several times, I'm assuming that the screws are useless without some sort of downwards force to make them 'grip' into the surface? I assume the propellant is exhausted from the initial attempt? Really hoping they can resolve this.

Once again highlights the value of opposable thumbed, autonomous organics in space.

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MiniMatt

MiniMatt

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Appears for now that gravity, such that it is, is the only thing holding the little fella down on the surface:

Lander project manager Stephan Ulamec told the BBC that he was very wary of now commanding the harpoons to fire, as this could throw Philae back off into space.

He also has worries about drilling into the comet because this too could affect the stability of the lander.

"We are still not anchored," he said. "We are sitting with the weight of the lander somehow on the comet. We are pretty sure where we landed the first time, and then we made quite a leap. Some people say it is in the order of 1 km high.

"And then we had another small leap, and now we are sitting there, and transmitting, and everything else is something we have to start understanding and keep interpreting."

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30034060

edit

The bandwidth used is also interesting:

Rosetta is presently sending signals to the ground stations at about 28 Kbps; Ignacio says that the spacecraft's own telemetry downlink uses about 1 or 2 Kbps of this, so the rest is being used to download science data from Rosetta and lander science and telemetry from the surface.

Think back to ten years ago when this mission was launched, I suspect many of us were still familiar with 33kbps modems for internet connectivity - comparable bandwidth out to a comet a gazillion miles away in deep space is pretty impressive :)

From http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/13/rosetta-operations-update/

Edited by MiniMatt
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Fingal

Fingal

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And the Mash delivers again today:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-technology/comet-landing-is-empirically-cool-so-shut-up-say-experts-2014111392741

LANDING a robot on a comet is objectively amazing and anyone who disagrees must be shunned, experts have confirmed.

Scientists explained that there are bad things and good things and not all the good things have to be about solving the bad things.

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