** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

[Glaucus]

They need to do what science they can, then try bouncing it or what ever, once batteries die, then it's utterly dead anyway.

 

[Cosimo]

Update:

We are on the cutting edge of science. We’ve already got fantastic data

Battery may be gone before this evening’s contact

They are thinking about trying to bounce the lander

It they got contact later, they plan to rotate the body of the lander to try to get a bit more illumination onto the solar panels

Hopes that all science data can be retrieved before loss of battery power

 

[Cosimo]

UPDATE:

Science return is 80-90% what was hoped for

Lander needs 5.1 Watts to boot up. The secondary batteries have about 3 Watts. So, doesn’t look good

At closest approach to the Sun, we may get enough power on the panels to wake up Philae. But this is not certain: “it looks a bit bad, but we can hope.”

 

[chef-borjan]

Not matter what happens now, its onwards and upwards from here. Can't wait.

 

[Cosimo]

So they've sent a command to reorientate Philae and received another data stream. Power is now lost!

Philae LanderMy #lifeonacomet has just begun @ESA_Rosetta. I'll tell you more about my new home, comet #67P soon… zzzzz #CometLanding

RT @esaoperations: Our lander's asleep: Good night, @Philae2014 #Cometlanding

 

[NeilF]

They need to do what science they can, then try bouncing it or what ever, once batteries die, then it's utterly dead anyway.

Unless it gets more/better lights at perihelion, at which time it may spring back to life again

 

[Domo]

This makes me so sad! Such odd emotions for an inanimate object. Earth's most adventurous little probe now lies all lonely while in a comatose state on that bleak asteroid. It is a huge triumph but so frustrating at the same time.

 

[Cosimo]

 

[Cosimo]

Philae's system voltage close to gving up:

ESA Rosetta Mission @ESA_Rosetta

@Philae2014 S'ok Philae, I’ve got it from here for now. Rest well...

We had some great tweets at the end.

 

[dbmzk1]

Great work, shame it bounced on landing! Hopefully it will wake up later in the mission and they can do a bit more with it

 

[Jokester]

Great work, shame it bounced on landing! Hopefully it will wake up later in the mission and they can do a bit more with it

Yeah, presumably as the comet heads round the sun, there's a chance it'll be brought back into the sunshine and wake up.

 

[sityeuropa]

12/08/15 is the closest the comet will be to the sun.

 

[koolpc]

Billions of pounds and the battery dies! lol Can't they send someone up there to turn the comet around so it faces the sun? lol

 

[sityeuropa]

Should have sent some AA's with it too for backup

 

[NeilF]

Billions of pounds and the battery dies! lol Can't they send someone up there to turn the comet around so it faces the sun? lol

The battery did it's job... It performed basically all the science it really needed to. Anything above that is a bonus... And that bonus may come in a few months if we're lucky.

 

[Combat squirrel]

The battery did it's job... It performed basically all the science it really needed to. Anything above that is a bonus... And that bonus may come in a few months if we're lucky.

Defo, I really really REALLY hope they get another chance, if just enough battery to fire the harpoon or fold the legs to lift it off the comet or something.

At least they have learned from it as well, so in future then can design systems to allow it to hop better or something ?

Also there is a slim (SLIM SLIM) chance a small bit of space debris or something may hit the comet dislodging the lander or something from the jolt ?

 

[Cosimo]

New image:

OSIRIS spots Philae drifting across the comet

These incredible images show the breathtaking journey of Rosetta’s Philae lander as it approached and then rebounded from its first touchdown on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014.

The mosaic comprises a series of images captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera over a 30 minute period spanning the first touchdown. The time of each of image is marked on the corresponding insets and is in GMT. A comparison of the touchdown area shortly before and after first contact with the surface is also provided.

The images were taken with Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera when the spacecraft was 17.5 km from the comet centre, or roughly 15.5 km from the surface. They have a resolution of 28 cm/pixel and the enlarged insets are 17 x 17 m.

From left to right, the images show Philae descending towards and across the comet before touchdown. The image taken after touchdown, at 15:43 GMT, confirms that the lander was moving east, as first suggested by the data returned by the CONSERT experiment, and at a speed of about 0.5 m/s.

The final location of Philae is still not known, but after touching down and bouncing again at 17:25 GMT, it reached there at 17:32 GMT. The imaging team is confident that combining the CONSERT ranging data with OSIRIS and navcam images from the orbiter and images from near the surface and on it from Philae’s ROLIS and CIVA cameras will soon reveal the lander’s whereabouts.

The insets are provided separately via the blog: OSIRIS spots Philae drifting across the comet:

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/17/osiris-spots-Philae-drifting-across-the-comet/

Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

 

[SideWinder]

What are the 'moon landing was a hoax' people saying about Rosetta?

 

[Cosimo]

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst spent 166 days in space with NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and Roscosmos commander Max Suraev. This is a summary of the mission:

 

[Cosimo]

Launch is at 21:01 GMT on the 23rd.