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14/11/14/2153215 story

Three Touchdowns for Rosetta’s Lander

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday November 15 2014, @06:12AM   
from the 21-points dept.

Blackmoore writes:

Many places are reporting - Three touchdowns for Rosetta’s lander

The harpoons did not fire and Philae appeared to be rotating after the first touchdown, which indicated that it had lifted from the surface again. Stephan Ulamec, Philae manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center, reported that it touched the surface at 15:34, 17:25 and 17:32 GMT (comet time -- it takes over 28 minutes for the signal to reach Earth, via Rosetta). The information was provided by several of the scientific instruments, including the ROMAP magnetic field analyser, the MUPUS thermal mapper, and the sensors in the landing gear that were pushed in on the first impact.
...

The lander remains unanchored to the surface at an as yet undetermined orientation. The science instruments are running and are delivering images and data, helping the team to learn more about the final landing site.

ESA Three touchdowns for Rosetta

• Good Night Philae (Score: 5, Informative) by sudo rm -rf on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:26AM

  by sudo rm -rf (2357) on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:26AM (#116150) Journal

  With its batteries depleted and not enough sunlight available to recharge, Philae has fallen into 'idle mode' for a potentially long silence. In this mode, all instruments and most systems on board are shut down.[...]Contact was lost at 00:36 UTC / 01:36 CET, not long before the scheduled communication loss that would have happened anyway as Rosetta orbited below the horizon.

  http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/ [esa.int]

• Here's ESA's updates via YouTube Here's ESA's updates via YouTube (Score: 2, Informative) by anubi on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:53AM

  by anubi (2828) on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:53AM (#116153) Journal

  Rosetta mission: Results from comet landing: 14 Nov, 13:00 GMT [youtube.com]

  This is from the ESA team, and I need to warn you its about an hour long.

  I really respect those guys. You aren't going find a truer example of scientists and engineers anywhere.

  --
  "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  • Better link... (Score: 3, Informative) by anubi on Saturday November 15 2014, @09:00AM

    by anubi (2828) on Saturday November 15 2014, @09:00AM (#116159) Journal

    European Space Agency, ESA [youtube.com]

    The first link was their latest release at this time. This link links to that one and will most likely link to subsequent ones.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    Parent

• Here's Philae's and Rosetta's postcards.. (Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday November 16 2014, @04:10AM

  by anubi (2828) on Sunday November 16 2014, @04:10AM (#116311) Journal

  sent from the comet. [wired.com]

  ESA team: Great job! My hat's off to you guys!

  Here's hoping the comet comes into enough sunlight to wake Philae.

  I understand the comet itself is blacker than coal - I can only imagine how pitch black it is out there so far from the sun, yet you still got photos.

  --
  "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]