I'm sure we have a Rosetta thread here somewhere but I'm too lazy to look. Also, this becoming exciting right now warrants a new one anyway. As some of you know, the Rosetta probe has a washing machine sized lander attached to it. It's called Philae (named after an island in the river Nile because Rosetta and stuff and funny). It has harpoons to fasten itself to the comet once landed. Nope, doesn't get any cooler than that unless there's a stowaway on board who jumps in front of the cameras once the thing is on that alien surface. I wonder what it will find. I guess: not much. It's immobile. But I could be wrong, maybe it lands on what gave water and the basic building blocks of life to earth. At least we should get spectacular pictures when the comet gets closer to the sun. ESA is on a winning streak lately. In case that reality show that wants to send people to die on Mars doesn't take off I'd bet good money right now the first Martians will be Europeans. Moving at a glacial pace still but they are moving faster than NASA.
Gonna have to disagree with that last bit. I mean, it's not like NASA has repeatedly landed massive robot rovers on Mars or anything. As for Rosetta, yeah, it's very cool, even if you are right that not much scientific discovery will result. I'm similarly excited by NASA's plan to capture an asteroid to bring to a Lunar orbit for manned study. Also not likely to result in much, but both are efforts to grab the brass ring, and that matters.
It's been termed the sexiest space probe ever! Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist says the probe is the 'sexiest' mission in the history of space exploration. Even the Shatt weighed in.
Not much scientific discovery? Tell me, how many other comets have we landed probes on? The orbital mechanics of the feat alone are impressive, never mind the first time in human history a probe has actually landed on a comet.
The difference seems (!) to be that NASA makes grand plans and then has its budget cut with a few spectacular flagship missions surviving. ESA doesn't have much money in the first place because the 20 member states are fighting over every cent constantly. So they always calculate with the smallest number possible. Meaning, they stay realistic and plan accordingly. When they say they'll put people on Mars by 2033 they probably can because they are planning with the most miniscule budget possible. NASA plans with today's budget just to postpone it again once the next administration cuts even deeper. As for me, I wish science wasn't something politicians still use to ignite national pride. Just pool the planet's resources when it comes to science. It's easier than reinventing the wheel over and over again. There is already a huge amount of cooperation (Rosetta is, as was Cassini/Huygens, the LHC has scientists from all over the world as will ITER) but more is always better. In my opionion most scientists don't need challenges from other teams. They'll accept the challenge of finding the truth.
Supposedly, the landing is being streamed now. I can't check because I'm in a car, and every page I try to load to check out what's going on causes my phone to shit itself as they've embedded video on the page. Dickwads.
It can move around a bit on those three leggy things (not walk). Up and down and nudge and left and right... they'll probably try to trigger the harpoons by doing that if they really didn't fire. It didn't bounce off thought and it didn't tilt so no reason to panic.
They now think it probably bounced at least twice (the second bounce much shorter at least). Hopefully it's still in place when they are able to make contact again.
Lander is either on a slope or fully on its side, hopefully the solar panels are mostly away from the ground.
So it may have bounced/tumbled, and positioning is not yet clear. Hopefully functionality is retined.
Press briefing right now. It's there, it's standing and it's broadcasting. It bounced a few times before settling down in the final landing place but Philae is OK. Hooray for the first quiet day at work in weeks so I can watch in peace
It bounced as much as 1km high first time ... amazing. Now one of its solar panels is partly shadowed under a mini cliff. There are now power consumption worries.
It's not okay yet.. It is only on two of its three 'feet', one pointing at the stars. They don't know the exact orientation or location yet, but so far, they can only use the experiments done by non-mechanical devices. Anything mechanical might influence the lander's position - e.g. tip it over. Also, it seems to have stopped in the shade, giving it only about an hour and a half of sunlight, instead of the expected 6 tot 7 a day. That will have an impact, of course. The battery power it has, only lasts for about 2 days I think, after that, it all depends on the solar panels. Still, data is coming in, science can be done the landing gear has the ability to retract a bit, if I understand correctly, and then come out again, to give the lander the ability to 'hop' around, but with one of the feet in the air, the risk is probably too high to try a two-legged bounce. Btw. the density of the 'rock' you see on the picture is very low, it is very porous material, apparently, as is the entire comet. Not your typical cliff. But goddamnit, this is fucking amazing science to take part in, I can really understand the guy that gets emotional every time he is interviewed. While it is 'funny' to say 'hey, we landed three times!' it is of course a failure of the lander, and a severe one - no harpoon, apparently no firing of the thrusters to keep the lander on the ground, and the current awkward position, also means no ice screw. we're very lucky Philae didn't just bounce off into space. Who knows what happens when the comet closes on the sun and heats up.. I'm guessing escaping gas underneat the lander could launch it again, right?
If this was Armageddon, we'd all be fucked. Not even Bruce Willis and space sick Steve Buscemi could save us.
Is there any chance it could get enough light to restart at some point? Is it on its way round the sun or towards the outer solar system?
Its possible that it might revive as the comet gets a little closer to the sun, but it seems unlikely to me. They have a pretty small window, from what I understand, of how long the probe can be on the surface before the comet starts off-gassing. At which point, its likely the probe will be tossed into space.
I was under the impression it would still see an hour or two of sunlight despite the problematic landing location. Wouldn't that allow for a limited window of solar powered daily activity?
