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

I'm sorry if this question sounds ignorant...

Did they ever consider at all that this could happen? Or is this in the "worse than any scenario they could have come up with" category?

I'm confused and so sad for these scientists, it must be a real bummer. I just know someone will figure it out.

superimposed graphic to show orientation.

Seems to be upright but precarious.
Or is it hanging sideways by 2 legs ?

originally posted by: Jbird
Seems to be upright but precarious.
Or is it hanging sideways by 2 legs ?

Which way is "up" or "down," anyway? Is "up" the side facing the sun?

a reply to: Blue Shift

I guess 'up' in this case would be opposite the surface ?

Kind of hard to tell from such a small field of view, what's going on.

a reply to: Jbird

Philae is standing vertically on the comet. Its suspected to be somewhere on the rim of a crater. It stands on the two legs pointing at 3 and 7 o'clock. The third leg is pointing to space with no ground.

originally posted by: smarterthanyou
a reply to: jeep3r

why is there blurred areas on that photograph? one of them looks like an actual square of blurriness...
doctoring or is it lens issues I think is the common meme

Perhaps compression artifacts? All in all, it looks rather OK to me ... 6 single images (not fullsize, though) combined in a panoramic view from Philae's current location.

One of the images seems to show black space with an out-gassing jet of the comet (which does look a bit blurry at first). But it's difficult to tell what exactly that is, it could also be a reflection of light caused by the lander on the ground or a reflection on a cliff or rock. Unless you meant something else, I guess that that's what we're actually looking at.

ETA: There's gonna be a mission update from ESOC at 14:00 CET on plus.google.com...

Breaking News from the bbc site -

www.bbc.co.uk...

Scientists working on Philae comet lander say it is time to take more risks with the probe, amid fears battery might die in hours.

There is an expectation that the robot may be entering its last day of useable power on the ice object 67P.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will upload commands today to tell Philae to deploy its drill.

The hope is that it can pull up some samples to analyse in the robot's onboard laboratories.

It is a high risk activity, however, because the torque could destabilise the delicately placed lander.

Last contact
Philae is sitting in the shadow of a cliff, and will not get enough sunlight to work beyond Saturday.

Friday night's radio contact with the orbiting Rosetta satellite will be the last that engineers have a reasonable confidence will work.

The team is still not sure where on the surface the probe came to rest after bouncing upon landing on Wednesday.

Scientists have been examining radio transmissions between the orbiter and the lander to see if they can triangulate a position.

This work has now produced a "circle of uncertainty" within which Philae almost certainly lies.

Follow-up imagery by Rosetta should now find the little craft, says Paolo Ferri, the head of mission operations at the European Space Agency.

He is still confident that engineers can find an answer to Philae's power shortage.

One solution that will be tried on Friday is to turn the main body of the robot to show the largest of its solar panels to the Sun.

The idea is that this could eke out some more life for the lander.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

I've heard some people on about that they could try to get Philae to jump to another position on the comet. How would they get Philae to do this? The top gas thruster isn't working is it? Have they got any others? Or will they just 'nudge' it off the comet somehow. Despite it being so incredibly risky, it would just be such a beautiful and audacious move if they pulled it off A massive coup for science!

But yea the drill option is probably the more sensible option lol If it works it would be amazing to be able to analyse the interior!

a reply to: MrBergstrom

You are correct, the thruster is inoperable. It does have a mechanism to allow it to 'hop' however it's current position could cause it to destabilise further and even tip over. There are other ways it can also be manoeuvred by deploying instruments, the gravity is so low that it will take very little to move it.

Yea I was thinking by deploying particular instruments it could 'hop' to somewhere else on 67p. If only it was that simple

What particular mechanism is it that would allow it to 'hop'? Would this be too strong an action and send it hurtling off into space? Or would a more subtle nudge by deploying an instrument be better?

a reply to: MrBergstrom

The landing gear can be used to make it hop, but it's not really in a good position for that.
However commands were uplinked to deploy MUPUS and APXS last night so when communication is hopefully re-established on Rosetta's pass this morning they can see what effect it's had.

It's a PDF but if anyone's interested there's a summary fact sheet on Philae from DLR or are responsible for it Philae factsheet

Yes ET. Have read the Arthur c Clarke book Rendevous with Rama. Where they land on a comet and it turns out its hollow and inside is a planet like place with many ET. Loved that book
reply to: eriktheawful

The signal has been re-acquired this morning, so that's the main thing!

I consider the fact that the probe landed on the comet and took some pictures already a huge success. Any scientific data hopefully accuired by it while on the surface will be a bonus.

I did have a thought at the back of my mind that, given the comet's almost non-existant gravity and a soft dust-covered surface, the landing plan for the probe wasn't the best one. If it were up to me, I'd let it descend extremely slowly, to make sure it doesn't bounce off.

a reply to: wildespace

I did have a thought at the back of my mind that, given the comet's almost non-existant gravity and a soft dust-covered surface, the landing plan for the probe wasn't the best one. If it were up to me, I'd let it descend extremely slowly, to make sure it doesn't bounce off.

Hindsight is easier than foresight I guess.

Thanks CosmicAnomaly for the factsheet, very interesting! I love looking at that harpoon and thinking we've sent three of them to a comet 300 million odd miles away! Brings a smile to my face

wildespace, yes it is just mind-blowing that we've landed on a comet! Everything we do beyond low Earth orbit is just amazing to be honest!

originally posted by: Cloudbuster
Yes ET. Have read the Arthur c Clarke book Rendevous with Rama. Where they land on a comet and it turns out its hollow and inside is a planet like place with many ET. Loved that book
reply to: eriktheawful

Yes, it's a great book.

However, it was a elongated (cigar shaped) asteroid that entered the solar system, and actually made course corrections (revealing it was under power, and not a natural object in a orbit), which is why they sent a team to investigate it.

Was still a wonderful book.

Will there be any news conferences today? I suppose they will be extremely stressed be cos the all important last sending of commands is this afternoon, worse-case am I right in thinking this?

UPDATE: Just popped up on the BBC site that it's began a drilling attempt...

Sorry if someone has mentioned this but:

The ESA people were saying the lander need about 6-7hours of sunlight a day for the batteries to charge.
They said the believe the lander is only getting about 1 and a half hours sunlight,and worry the batteries won't charge.

What I am wondering is-can't they turn the lander off for 4-5 days,which would accumulate the needed 6-7 hours of sunlight?
Should that give the batteries the charge they need?

I am sure they must have thought of this,but I can't see why this wouldn't work.

To be honest it was designed to carry out all of the experiments on just the primary battery with the assumption that it would never charge, so events like this were thought of as best as possible - the biggest issue is the lack of anchoring. Most of the data has been gathered already and the drill has now been deployed so hopefully that will work and then I think everything will be complete even if it cannot go into it's extended phase.

When the comet gets closer to the Sun, there is the additional possibility that Philae can accumulate enough charge to come back to life to retrieve a little more data. But really, while it is disappointing that the several months of extra time may not happen, the primary part of the Philae mission phase will either be complete, or nearly complete.
Not to forget that Philae is only part of the mission, Rosetta still has about another 2 years of data gathering to carry out.

We should really be celebrating what we have achieved, rather than worrying too much about these issues. While frustrating, it is definitely not a waste.