Rosetta Comet Landing: LIVE-Stream, Countdown & Mission Updates

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Probably was...

The image I found is a tad closer in... the landing gear shadow is much closer to to the rocks than it is in the BBC image. This image was posted about 45 minutes ago on the facebook page..

The BBC image is also on this site/page and is explained as a "closer in" image, but the lander was still in transit:

sploid.gizmodo.com...

I'll look for a better copy of the image I found!

.:Edit

Looks like it's a cropped version of this from the ESA control room (I think?): from this facebook page

www.facebook.com...



With the text "Already started to get the pictures from the surface of The Comet 67 P! Waiting ESA to make it official."

originally posted by: Spruce
a reply to: JesperA

How do you know what color it is? They haven't taken any color photos.

No, but they have an spectrometer onboard of Rosetta called Alice which make it fairly easy to determine what the comet is made out of, which compounds/materials etc etc and with that knowledge people can figure out the color of objects.

The situation is extremely unclear -- and highly interesting.

None of the anchoring systems have functioned.

it seems to have drifted off the surface and landed again.

No images from the surface yet.

Surface composition/consistency may be snow-like, nothing to grab onto.

Wonderfully weird!!!

originally posted by: JimOberg
The situation is extremely unclear -- and highly interesting.

None of the anchoring systems have functioned.

it seems to have drifted off the surface and landed again.

No images from the surface yet.

Surface composition/consistency may be snow-like, nothing to grab onto.

Wonderfully weird!!!

I had to go out of house again, so I could use some update. Did the anchoring mechanisms fail or is the surface not stable enough to anchor to ? Because my last info was that they were not sure whether the anchor mechanism even deployed in the first place .

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Thanks for your post, Soylent.

Cool thread!!

So....when do we start the discussion on rocks vs alien artifacts?

The ESA warranty expired at 10 years/4 billion miles. Hopefully it has landed in a spot that has a natural component that fits nicely to the gear so it can stay put while conducting the experiments. Maybe an exposed boulder or something.

Rosetta’s navigation camera:

a reply to: martinkb

WOW another alien landscape .
Just WOW!!!!.

Oh and watch the short film about the mission here.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I'm waiting on Bruce and Ben to show up, "because I don't want a miss a thing"

Anyone know what amount of gravity the comet has? compared to earth?.

a reply to: boymonkey74

All I can find is its very low, so I'm guessing a few times less than the moon.

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

I just imagined myself leaping up that ridge in the first photo above and wondered If I could do it in one leap .

a reply to: boymonkey74

If I were you I would just skip, a leap might send you off into space. Still be fun do try

originally posted by: boymonkey74
Anyone know what amount of gravity the comet has? compared to earth?.

Gravity on the comet would be a bit odd, considering the comet's irregular shape. However, the acceleration due to gravity on the surface of Comet 67/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has been estimated at 10ˉ³ m/s².

That's about 0.01% that of the Earth, which is about 9.8 m/s².

Source:
www.simpack.com...
Note: much of this linked pdf is about the FIRST target for the Rosetta Mission, which was Comet 46/Wirtenan. However, due to delays in launch, a new target (67/Churyumov–Gerasimenko) needed to be found.


UPDATE TO EDIT:
I corrected the reason for the mission switch from comet 46/Wirtenan to 67/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. I was going by memory, and my memory is not what it used to be.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

We need to make a little space suit for a flea and see how high he can jump on it .

more images
www.esa.int...

This scene features the boulder named Cheops, the largest and brightest boulder towards the top left of the image. It measures about 45 m across and 25 m high.

In the foreground, several large angular blocks are seen, some with faces that appear brighter than the surrounding material. In the background, a faint stream of gas and dust can be seen, showing that an active region is nearby.

Hmmm, I don't see gas n dust streaming, unless they mean the points of light that look like stars ?
ETA:
nevermind. Had my gamma turned too low. I see it now.

a reply to: Jbird

"Cheops" - gotta love he names - picked "randomly" for "no reason" of course. don't believe me? Just ask. They won't hesitate to tell ya the same.

Jbird, that second picture is simply mesmerizing. I think I'm going to make a folder full of pictures of this thing for my rotating desktop background, they're unreal

a reply to: KAOStheory

Cheops is the Hellenized version of Khufu's name. I don't get what you're hinting at. Humans have long-favored Ancient Egyptian & Ancient Greek names and mythological names for a variety of things. I love them myself, I've got a laundry list of potentials for future pets, what should people erroneously make of that?

Great news all it has been secured .
Apparently upon landing it bounced a few hundred meters .


www.bbc.co.uk...