Updates Rosetta Mission News

[Lucy]

Yes, obviously the whole comet is an alien spacecraft and they had to carefully select picture angles for the public.

 

[Andy44]

But according to a different conspiracy theory, it's impossible to build rockets powerful enough to fly to things like the moon or comets...so confusing, which conspiracy theory do I believe? :hmm:

 

[SolarLiner]

So Philae drilled! But the comet was not cooperative: Even the "DRILL ALL THE THINGS" mode in the lander did not succeed in penetrating in the surface.

Surface must be >2 MPa hard! The comet remains surprising bizarre and uncooperative. Terrestrial analogues: Sandstone has about 5-15MPa, Granite 5-20MPa Tensile strenght

 

[Hartmann]

It´s like the Armageddon movie, the nex time they would need explossives :uhh:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Hmmm.... Explosively forged projectile, perhaps?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

It´s like the Armageddon movie, the nex time they would need explossives :uhh:

While not doing this on a comet, the Japanese are already packing explosive projectiles on board Hayabusa 2 because their method last time (only projectiles IIRC) didn't work too well. Launch is 2 weeks away....

 

[Urwumpe]

The technology of the MASCOT lander, that Hayabusa 2 will carry, would have been pretty useful on Philae as well....

 

[Topper]

So Philae drilled! But the comet was not cooperative: Even the "DRILL ALL THE THINGS" mode in the lander did not succeed in penetrating in the surface.

Could this also be the reason that the harpoons did not work? Or was it a technical failure?

 

[Unstung]

Could this also be the reason that the harpoons did not work? Or was it a technical failure?

The harpoons did not fire.

 

[Topper]

In another source I read that "PTOLMEY" has been filled with material from the drill. So did it work or not?

 

[C3PO]

It looks like Philae has been spotted.

The second picture was taken 1 min 26 sec after first contact, and shows Philae floating away (@ 30 cm/s IIRC). We now know the direction it went.
http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/11/16/rosetta-imagery-shows-philae-at-first-landing-site/

PS: Image resolution is 1.3 m/pixel.

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------

This surprised me a bit, but shows the value of posting raw images quickly.

The raw images were posted on ESA’s Rosetta blog on Friday and readers of the blog were the first to successful locate Philae and its shadow to the right of the more obvious dust cloud. The findings of the blog readers were confirmed by Mikel Canania from the earth observation division of ESA’s Flight Dynamics department.

 

[RisingFury]

This surprised me a bit, but shows the value of posting raw images quickly.

It doesn't surprise me. I've seen it multiple times, including during the manhunt for the Boston bomber, when the police relied on reasoning and findings from people on Reddit...

The internet is the human equivalent to cloud computing. It gives you access to minds you don't employ.

 

[Urwumpe]

It doesn't surprise me. I've seen it multiple times, including during the manhunt for the Boston bomber, when the police relied on reasoning and findings from people on Reddit...

Actually, thats wrong . The police had to ignore the "Reasoning" and findings of the people on reddit, because it was simply wrongful accusation. Nobody there had found the boston bombers before the police.

Swarm intelligence is pretty stupid.

 

[C3PO]

What surprised me was that nobody caught it BEFORE it was posted, because the animated GIF was made by ESA and not the readers that spotted it.

---------- Post added at 06:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------

Swarm intelligence is pretty stupid.

And when it comes to the internet the "Bull's-eye/Red herring" factor is abysmally low. It probably creates more work than it saves.

 

[Keatah]

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

..says, "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."

It says most systems, and that implies not all systems. So what systems are active or in a watchdog mode? And what kind of battery is keeping them active?

 

[C3PO]

The power from the solar panels is used to heat the instrument bay. If there's a surplus, the computer tries to boot. Anything above that is used to charge the battery. I can't remember the exact w/wh but there was a complete rundown in one of the ESA vids. I can't remember which one, sorry.

Solar power diminishes by distance^4 so there's a good chance it will establish contact once the trio gets closer to the Sun.

 

[RisingFury]

Actually, thats wrong . The police had to ignore the "Reasoning" and findings of the people on reddit, because it was simply wrongful accusation. Nobody there had found the boston bombers before the police.

Swarm intelligence is pretty stupid.

I never claimed it lead to the arrest of the Boston bomber, but there were a few things that Reddit found that the police later used. It also lead to an arrest, though I don't know if the accusation turned out to be true or not.

---------- Post added at 20:52 ---------- Previous post was at 20:50 ----------

Solar power diminishes by distance^4 so there's a good chance it will establish contact once the trio gets closer to the Sun.

Typo?

 

[Lucy]

Let's keep on-topic, please. Boston bombings stuff can have their own thread.

 

[C3PO]

Typo?

Yes, it's 1/4. It's from the surface formula for a sphere. A=4 x pi x r^2. If you have 2x distance you get 1/4 light per area.

 

[Keatah]

At mission end (Rosetta orbiter) there is talk about landing it, too, on the surface. All they'd need to do is get close, and let it settle in place.

While that's happening, imagine the closeup pictures. Thousands of pixels per meter!