Rosetta space mission - Philae probe due to land on comet on 12th Nov 2014
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SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
I would think so, laws of motion and that. Gravity must be pretty neglibible.
Mumbles274
running from law and the press and the parents
2hats
Dust.
Most of the science packages are active but the SD2 drill package would most likely exert sufficient force to flip or dislodge Philae from the surface so I suspect they are holding back on that one for the time being.
TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
This site shows which elements of the Deep Space Network are communicating with which vehicle at any time (At the time of posting, Rosetta is presumable out of line of sight)
http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
2hats
Dust.
Rosetta also uses ESA's ESTRACK Deep Space Antennae as well as the DSN (to fill in gaps). Stations in Argentina, Spain and Australia. So you won't see all the communication windows on that site.
TheHoodedClaw
acknowledging ur soup leg
Do they have a similar site, do you know?
2hats
Dust.
Not any publicly available one that I know of.
PS Rosetta will spend a significant proportion of its time transferring data back to the Earth now. Next contact with Philae isn't due till about 0500 UTC tomorrow.
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2hats
Dust.
Interestingly the lander harpoon pyrotechnic initiators are nitrocellulose based. Unfortunately, since the Rosetta mission was conceived, designed, built and flown, question marks have arisen over their reliability in some modes of use in very/ultra low pressure environments, ie space:
One wonders whether the assembly to drive the cold gas thruster pressurisation used a similar mechanism and whether the experiments above might have some bearing on the issues earlier today.
One wonders whether the assembly to drive the cold gas thruster pressurisation used a similar mechanism and whether the experiments above might have some bearing on the issues earlier today.
2hats
Dust.
Analysis of Philae magnetometer data suggests the lander bounced after the first touchdown, taking 113 minutes to make a second 'touchdown' and then bounced once more, taking 7 minutes before finally settling down on the surface.
First bounce to 455m, second to 3m?
Might have been a factor in the observed change in the radio communication window between the lander and orbiter.
First bounce to 455m, second to 3m?
Might have been a factor in the observed change in the radio communication window between the lander and orbiter.
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2hats
Dust.
That depends on several factors. The surface might be sticky enough and/or the craft buried itself sufficiently for it to sit there, certainly long enough to achieve the main science objectives. However it may not be able to risk drilling into the surface. Though they could just leave that until late in the mission and then risk having a go.
Then again, perhaps the ice screws have sufficient grip and they can proceed as planned.
Or there could be some sort of outgassing event from the vicinity, as the nucleus of the comet continues to warm, which dislodges the lander. Though this is probably not that likely in the short term (days to weeks). Though ultimately (months or even in years to come) the lander may well be dislodged/driven off the surface by the activity of the comet (and had been so even with all ice screws and harpoons engaged).
Other related factors (not being secured to the comet may mean a less than optimal landing position) might be orientation and illumination angles/times and thus the degree to which the lander can recharge. It appears to have bounced so another question is how far horizontally (if at all) has it shifted from the planned touchdown location.
Perhaps more will be understood/revealed later today.
2hats
Dust.
The MUPUS surface sensor package also agrees with this 3 landing/2 bounce scenario and timings.
Contact was re-established with Philae this morning and data is flowing again, including the panoramic cameras which would be key to establishing the vehicle orientation. There will also be an attempt to locate Philae this morning by imaging it with the orbiter's OSIRIS camera to try to confirm the final touchdown position.
2hats
Dust.
Yes. Even better news that they are still receiving data from it.
big eejit
She looks like Alan Gilzean
2hats
Dust.
They have some idea. The priority is to work out the orientation of the lander on the surface. Once that is known they can work out which science packages to operate and in what order to best investigate the surface (ie that does not compromise the lander's status).
2hats
Dust.
The panorama image taken 'after' landing was apparently largely black with some stripes. This might be explained by the long first bounce with some rotation (during a long exposure) - ie largely a shot of space with occasional blurred sweeps of random sections of comet nucleus surface.
ChrisD
.
anyone seen a graphic of where in the solar system 67P is? I assume somewhere between Mars and Jupiter ?
Thanks 2hats for all the info. I'm amazed at the distances involved and just as captivated as I was in July 1969 when my parents allowed me to stay up most of the night.... that landing site was a quarter of a million miles away - this one 300 million.
Thanks 2hats for all the info. I'm amazed at the distances involved and just as captivated as I was in July 1969 when my parents allowed me to stay up most of the night.... that landing site was a quarter of a million miles away - this one 300 million.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
About 1/2 way between the orbits of mars and jupiter, yes
Fancy zoomable 3D version http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/
2hats
Dust.
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