We have touchdown. ;) Rosetta.

by | Nov 12, 2014 | Journal | 10 comments

And it sings. Who’d have thought a comet would sing.

10 Comments

  2. GreenWyvern
    GreenWyvern on November 12, 2014 at 11:38 am

    So the situation is still unclear, but the lander is fine. It’s on the surface, and they are in contact with it.

    First appearances are that it touched down very gently, 4cm movement on landing gear. Top thruster wasn’t working, which nearly caused them to abort the landing earlier, so it had to be as gentle as possible. It seems like the harpoons didn’t fire – but they be able to try firing them again.

    It landed at the correct location, then bounced off very slowly, turned slightly because the flywheel had been switched off for landing, then landed again and is now stationary on the surface. All the science experiments are sending data correctly.

    There are unexpected fluctuations in the signal, but this seems to be an issue they can deal with, and is not serious. However, they don’t know the cause.

    Rosetta has now gone behind the horizon, in a planned manoeuvre, so they are out of contact for a few hours.

    They may come to a different conclusion after a few more hours of analysing the data, but that’s the situation at present. Stable on the surface, but not anchored.

    More news tomorrow.

  3. Steve Stein
    Steve Stein on November 12, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    I hope Philae can anchor itself adequately. Gravity is in pretty short supply!
    Super-psyched. Amazing job, ESA.

    • chondrite
      chondrite on November 12, 2014 at 3:53 pm

      One of the specialties of this mission is the use of ‘harpoons’, launched from the probe. The probe reels them in and is bound to the surface of the comet.

      • chondrite
        chondrite on November 12, 2014 at 3:55 pm

        Oops, just read Wyvern’s comment. One hopes the technical difficulties don’t cause too many problems.

  4. GreenWyvern
    GreenWyvern on November 13, 2014 at 9:02 am

    Well, there’s a complex and critical situation with the lander. They’ve got perhaps a day and a half to two days to understand the details of what’s happened and try to figure out a solution, before the battery dies.

    The project scientists didn’t get much sleep last night or the night before, and they probably won’t won’t get much tonight either.

  5. GreenWyvern
    GreenWyvern on November 13, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    Here’s the best summary of the current situation that I’ve seen:
    http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/11131025-philae-status-a-day-later.html

    They’ve sent the signal to MUPUS to deploy, which should hopefully change the tilt of Philae in the right direction, and maybe allow it to get more sunlight. Currently they are out of contact, so they have to wait for the next window which opens at ~9:30 CET to find out the result. See @Philae_MUPUS on Twitter.

  7. ryanrick
    ryanrick on November 14, 2014 at 10:08 am

    I just know, you’re gonna love this NASA downloadable!
    NASA free download – “To move beyond the mere detection of such intelligence, and to have any realistic chance of comprehending it, we can gain much from the lessons learned by researchers facing similar challenges on Earth. Like archaeologists who reconstruct temporally distant civilizations from fragmentary evidence, SETI researchers will be expected to reconstruct distant civilizations separated from us by vast expanses of space as well as time. And like anthropologists, who attempt to understand other cultures despite differences in language and social customs, as we attempt to decode and interpret extraterrestrial messages, we will be required to comprehend the mindset of a species that is radically Other.”

    http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/archaeology_anthropology_and_interstellar_communication.html#.VGZEBvnF_nh

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