Updates Rosetta Mission News

[SolarLiner]

And, as usual, the genius designers at Kerbal HQ have sent a ship 6 billion km before realising they forgot the landing gear...

Please tell me there isn't a Jeb or a Bill on the nav team

 

[Urwumpe]

Wait, anchors may not have deployed...

Philae landed, but will it stay in place?

Looks like it stays in place by sheer awesomeness.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Yes, only 4 cm damper compression which was even more gentle than expected. But latest news was that the anchors have not been deployed, they're now looking at wether or not to redeploy them.
But in earlier news from control room they did confirm that the harpoon has been fired. If the harpoon did work, what part do they mean by anchors? The drills on each tripod leg?

 

[C3PO]

May take a while for really good pictures then. 32.77 kb/sec ~ 4.1 KB/sec, which is slower than dial-up.

The most impressive stat is the power of the signal: ~1.3E-20 kW !!!

---------- Post added at 05:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:00 PM ----------

I think they will wait for pictures before deciding to tinker with the anchors. I'm not sure if the anchors and harpoons are two different systems. The number of languages used can lead to some confusion regarding the names of the systems.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Yes, only 4 cm damper compression which was even more gentle than expected. But latest news was that the anchors have not been deployed, they're now looking at wether or not to redeploy them.
But in earlier news from control room they did confirm that the harpoon has been fired. If the harpoon did work, what part do they mean by anchors? The drills on each tripod leg?

"More analysis of @Philae2014 telemetry indicates harpoons did not fire as 1st thought. Lander in gr8 shape. Team looking at refire options"

 

[SolarLiner]

Notable quotes from French president Hollande's words on the landing:
"One may ask why Europe, and Rosetta is a pretty good answer"
"To know where to go, you have to know where go come from."

 

[Scruce]

A descent image from ROLIS:

---------- Post added at 18:09 ---------- Previous post was at 17:42 ----------

And an image just seconds before landing:

 

[Topper]

I found this:


EDIT:
I think it's a fake

 

[Artlav]

Nope, apparently it's from the mock-up on Earth.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Media briefing (on live stream) now postponed to 20:00 CET. Besides a status update, it is expected that new images will be released.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Nope, apparently it's from the mock-up on Earth.

Clearly a soundstage on Mars

How serious is the situation if harpoons/anchors cannot be deployed?

 

[SolarLiner]

Alt-text: [LIVE]

 

[Urwumpe]

Looks like there is a crisis meeting taking place in ESA... the media briefing is constantly delayed.

 

[SolarLiner]

Currently am on the ESA stream and media briefing is live.

Philae apparently bounced off the ground very slowly and lander may be starting to turn because the fly wheel has been turned off at touch down.

"We're so cool we might actually land twice" (not exact words... couldn't transcribe realtime)

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Philae apparently bounced off the ground very slowly and lander may be starting to turn because the fly wheel has been turned off at touch down.

To complete the story; yes it has probably bounced off, indicated by the constant fluctuations in solar power strength and radio link. However, after 2 hours (!) these fluctuations stopped. Also the radio link became stable. They speculate that this indeed indicates a 2nd landing, this time stable. Still without harpoon being used.

Speculating that this 2nd landing (2 hours later!) was indeed successful, it's an interesting thought that the harpoon is still unused and might still be applied at a later point in time. For example, when conditions get rough on the comet as it nears the sun.

Rest of story: the radio link is now lost, because the Rosetta satellite is getting on the other side of the comet so it can't see Philae anymore right now. They did receive more image data (to be released), and will be analyzing the data that has been received so far. Radio link with Philae will (hopefully) be reestablished the next orbit (tomorrow morning, not 100% clear when). Tomorrow morning more news is expected, next live briefing is tomorrow at 14:00.

 

[boogabooga]

So, basically there is an unanchored, unstable lander on the comet that may or may not be bouncing along the surface. Oh, and they are going to be out of contact with it for several hours.

The man they interviewed said that he considers the mission a success no matter what because of the smiles of the mission team. Perhaps in the Nature article, they can just publish pictures of smiling flight controllers instead of data...

 

[Urwumpe]

So, basically there is an unanchored, unstable lander on the comet that may or may not be bouncing along the surface. Oh, and they are going to be out of contact with it for several hours.

Pretty much yes. Except that it looks like the lander has actually finally settled in place by the weak gravity of the comet.

The man they interviewed said that he considers the mission a success no matter what because of the smiles of the mission team. Perhaps in the Nature article, they can just publish pictures of smiling flight controllers instead of data...

Too soon for that pessimism.

 

[Topper]

Maybe they've luck and they have landed on a much more interesting area

 

[SolarLiner]

Maybe they've luck and they have landed on a much more interesting area

The weak gravitational pull and the apparent 2 hours between touchdowns makes me think that it couldn't have gone long places. maybe a few meters sideways, no more.

 

[Donamy]

Hope it's not upside down. :facepalm: