ESA Rosetta: Philae has successfully landed on comet 67P!

[Eudemon]

[headline]Philae Robot Probe Lands on Comet[/headline]

As much as a number of you won't care for this, this is actually a huge thing in human history as it's the first successful landing of a human made probe on a comet. A mission lasting more than 20 years came to its final moments earlier today when the Philae probe left its carrier craft Rosetta. At more than 300 million miles away where contacts take 28mins to reach us on Earth we heard the first contact after touchdown shortly around 1605 GMT/1705 CET.

 

Can't wait to see what we learn and see from this project.

 

Sauce: Live: Rosetta comet landing - BBC News

[CLR-GTR]

For a moment there it looked like the mission was in danger with that failing rocket of the lander, but they did it!

[killalldude]

Interesting... even more so since I am currently working on a somewhat related project in school. Thanks for the article. :btup

[Eudemon]

Apparently the harpoons did not fire but it has screwed itself into the comet and they are looking at a possible refire of them. The gravity on the comet is 1/10000th that of Earth so being well attached is required when you're travelling at more than 13km/s.

[Camel]

That was a good media briefing!

 

*waits patiently*

[CarMadMike]

I was following the progress and the talk around the mission on twitter today while at work, I didn't get a chance to actually watch anything to do with it though unfortunately.

 

Very interesting step for mankind indeed.

[Camel]

Who said ze Germans have no sense of humour. :lol:

[TIMELESS]

So the Philae lander has ran out of power..

 

 

Before it went for its nap, the crew tried to move it slightly so it would get more sunlight on the solar panels, but by the looks of it, if nothing is heard from Philae in the next few days (I guess) we'll have to wait until August 2015 - when the comet will be closer to the Sun than Earth, charging the batteries via solar power.

[Ryzza5]

It's solar powered, so would come online again when it's in the right spot

[TIMELESS]

It's solar powered, so would come online again when it's in the right spot

 

I already mentioned that. It's initial batteries provide power for 2 days, and afterwards the solar panels are supposed to charge up a secondary battery and keep it powered for months. However Philae landed in a dark spot and isn't receiving enough sunlight, therefore it's powered down and according to the European Space Agency could remain this way for some time, as I mentioned they must be referring to the comet coming closer to the Sun next year.

[Camel]

Didn't it do a :chairfall: and land on it's side after the 1km bounce?

[TIMELESS]

Didn't it do a :chairfall: and land on it's side after the 1km bounce?

 

I was reading earlier, apparently it did bounce after the initial impact and if I remember correctly ended up like 500 metres away from where they were aiming, stuck behind a cliff blocking the sunlight :hmmm:

[CLR-GTR]

ESA confirmed it bounced up 2 times before actually landing and STAYING there xD

[TIMELESS]

ESA confirmed it bounced up 2 times before actually landing and STAYING there xD

 

That awkward moment when you're the guy in charge of landing the thing properly. :p

[CLR-GTR]

Maybe he made up for it by slightly modifying Philae:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=neoUi4poCXI

[Eudemon]

I'm still amazed at the fact it bounced about a km high and still managed to hit the comet again, I mean that bounce could easily have launched it out into space. About the batteries, there was a mention about it possibly being able to grab some solar power this morning but if nothing has come of that then it's clearly in a well shaded area and we may not hear from Philae again until August 2015 or perhaps even never again. :(

[TIMELESS]

From the ESA statement: "Given the low recharge current coming from the solar panels at this time, it is unlikely that contact will be re-established with the lander in the near future."

 

It doesn't look good. It's only getting 90 minutes of sunlight per day, and I think it needs like 5-7 hours, something like that.

 

Rosetta will be passing over on Monday, so we'll maybe get an update on the status of Philae. Hope it wakes up, I was enjoying it's tweets.

[Eudemon]

The tweeting between the two main crafts and its components were really well done and added a real affection to them due to it.

[CLR-GTR]

That's what I thought. I kind of found it cute how the lander and orbiter seemed to be living personalities.

[TIMELESS]

Well they seem to have an idea of Philae's location now:

 

 

Sauce: Rosetta mission: Philae finally spotted on comet - Telegraph

[Eudemon]

I was just reading that but isn't that only the first landing hit and the subsequent bounce back up?

[TIMELESS]

I was just reading that but isn't that only the first landing hit and the subsequent bounce back up?

 

That's what I was thinking too, I wonder what intervals the pictures were taken in, or maybe they just took pictures after the initial landing :hmmm: Or maybe this is Philae's current resting spot. :hmmm:

[CLR-GTR]

If it is...... what on 67P (continuing my bad jokes.... what on earth doesn't apply) is blocking the sunlight for it then? I see no shadow large enough now... unless that huge bit of rock stands like a tower.

[Eudemon]

Better report on the images. It is of the first landing site.

 

Philae spotted after first landing on 67P | Rosetta - ESAs comet chaser

[TIMELESS]

Man you'd hate for that to be your fault. Not only did Philae end up not where it was supposed to, but it's also now shutdown, because it isn't getting the sunlight that it probably would have gotten (if it landed in the right place) which would have kept Philae powered up. :lol: