The Rosetta probe has woken up ...
- Thread starter GlennB
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I think they said at the conference today that the harpoons cannot be fired now - for some, as yet, unknown reason they didn't fire, but the spools that wind in the slack cable did operate.
They seemed to say that they'll take what pictures they can and gather what science they can for the next day, then (maybe) they'll attempt to roll the lander over (currently it's lying on its side) so that it can use its drill to gather material for the on-board science experiments.
They may not have much time - the strange orientation of the lander, plus the fact that it seems to have ended up in a shadowed area of the comet, mean that the solar panels are gathering much less energy than expected - if that doesn't change the batteries will run down in the next day or two. Even if the batteries do run down, the lander may reactivate in weeks or months when the comet moves closer to the sun and its changing 'season' allows more light to hit the solar panels.
The lander has already done some good science, and even if it does die in the next day or two, we should remember that the lander was only ever supposed to gather 20% of the science for the mission. The main robot, Rosetta, is still working perfectly and orbiting the comet continuing to gather its 80% share.
They seemed to say that they'll take what pictures they can and gather what science they can for the next day, then (maybe) they'll attempt to roll the lander over (currently it's lying on its side) so that it can use its drill to gather material for the on-board science experiments.
They may not have much time - the strange orientation of the lander, plus the fact that it seems to have ended up in a shadowed area of the comet, mean that the solar panels are gathering much less energy than expected - if that doesn't change the batteries will run down in the next day or two. Even if the batteries do run down, the lander may reactivate in weeks or months when the comet moves closer to the sun and its changing 'season' allows more light to hit the solar panels.
The lander has already done some good science, and even if it does die in the next day or two, we should remember that the lander was only ever supposed to gather 20% of the science for the mission. The main robot, Rosetta, is still working perfectly and orbiting the comet continuing to gather its 80% share.
Here is an image showing the planned target area on the comet and where ESA thinks Philae may have come to a rest:
http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/rosetta-mission-119~magnifier_pos-0.html
I think the red spot is the target and the blue area is where the lander might have landed in the end (I could be wrong about this). The blue area includes a crater wall.
http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/rosetta-mission-119~magnifier_pos-0.html
I think the red spot is the target and the blue area is where the lander might have landed in the end (I could be wrong about this). The blue area includes a crater wall.
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Olowkow
Philosopher
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Source: Rosetta | rendezvous with a comet
Latest I heard is that Philae landed 3 times. Amazingly, it came in at 1m/sec and bounced out 1 km(!), then came back down and bounced several meters, and finally came to rest. They are not sure yet exactly where it is, but the initial landing, bounce, was within 100 meters of the spot they had chosen. They think it is sort of lying on its side so they are worried about firing any harpoons, running drills, or even turning on any other mechanical devices. (ETA: I believe escape velocity is around 18"/sec, so any action could have nasty reactions.)
The harpoon gas source did not arm, so the propellant is still on board. I have not heard this from another source, but last night Rachel Maddow talked about a wax seal that did not puncture properly .
Data disappears when Rosetta goes behind the comet, but reappears as expected with stored photos to transmit.
Note: the URL referenced has a "rewind mode", so you can replay, anything within a ~45? hour period, I think, by sliding the bar beneath the video.
Latest I heard is that Philae landed 3 times. Amazingly, it came in at 1m/sec and bounced out 1 km(!), then came back down and bounced several meters, and finally came to rest. They are not sure yet exactly where it is, but the initial landing, bounce, was within 100 meters of the spot they had chosen. They think it is sort of lying on its side so they are worried about firing any harpoons, running drills, or even turning on any other mechanical devices. (ETA: I believe escape velocity is around 18"/sec, so any action could have nasty reactions.)
The harpoon gas source did not arm, so the propellant is still on board. I have not heard this from another source, but last night Rachel Maddow talked about a wax seal that did not puncture properly .
Data disappears when Rosetta goes behind the comet, but reappears as expected with stored photos to transmit.
Note: the URL referenced has a "rewind mode", so you can replay, anything within a ~45? hour period, I think, by sliding the bar beneath the video.
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pgwenthold
Penultimate Amazing
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Does Rosetta have a picture of the lander on the surface?
Olowkow
Philosopher
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No. Not yet. They have a wide angle of the comet and the lander (as a speck) on its way down.
Not at the moment, I think.
Would Rosetta's cameras have sufficient resolution to be able to pick up the lander?
Belz...
Fiend God
That's what happens when you send a robot to do an android's job.
Belz...
Fiend God
That's what happens when you don't choose alkaline.
anglolawyer
Banned
Yes, 64 hours is what I heard. Maybe they will use 60 and then fire a rocket to shift it into the sunlight (that's not what I heard just my own speculation and therefore worthless)
Trebuchet
Penultimate Amazing
They don't have a rocket to fire. Just the downward pointing thruster and the harpoons, neither of which worked. Anybody know if they share the same gas source?
Beelzebuddy
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With gravity that low, wouldn't it be feasible to strap a cellphone vibrator to Philae, such that if it landed on its side or even upside down, it could buzz its way back up and try falling again? I'm thinking of something that works like click beetles here on Earth.
Or is the probe fragile to the point that even brushing contact with a hard surface could cause significant damage?
anglolawyer
Banned
sir drinks-a-lot
Philosopher
Rats
There are ideas to use some of the moving instruments to get the lander of the ground and reposition it. Some more information here:
http://www.newscientist.com/article...RSS|NSNS|2012-GLOBAL|online-news#.VGT-0PPn-Uk
The article also details how ESA is looking for the lander on images taken from Rosetta. Apparently there is just barely enough resolution, with the vehicle possibly showing up as 9 pixels.
davefoc
Philosopher
This thread continues to be the best source of information about the Rosetta that I've found. It seems like the cumulative effort of the people in thread to find the most interesting articles and images is doing a better job than any of the other sites I've found.
It doesn't seem like the screws on the legs have been talked about for awhile. Did they attempt to deploy them and they're not working? Are they not deploying them because they still hope to move the lander? Maybe they're not deploying them because of the odd angle the lander is at?
One thing that surprises me a bit is there wasn't some sort of mechanism in place that could be used to right the lander. I'm thinking of radio controlled cars that have a mechanism to upright themselves so you don't need to walk out and retrieve them after they've crashed.
I liked the idea of putting a phone type vibrator in the lander but more for the purpose of implementing a method whereby the lander could move across the surface. The way the ones of those work that I am familiar with is that they rotate an eccentric weight with a small motor. I am thinking of just enough motion to lift the lander slightly off the surface and then perhaps a little puff from a thruster could get it to move.
It doesn't seem like the screws on the legs have been talked about for awhile. Did they attempt to deploy them and they're not working? Are they not deploying them because they still hope to move the lander? Maybe they're not deploying them because of the odd angle the lander is at?
One thing that surprises me a bit is there wasn't some sort of mechanism in place that could be used to right the lander. I'm thinking of radio controlled cars that have a mechanism to upright themselves so you don't need to walk out and retrieve them after they've crashed.
I liked the idea of putting a phone type vibrator in the lander but more for the purpose of implementing a method whereby the lander could move across the surface. The way the ones of those work that I am familiar with is that they rotate an eccentric weight with a small motor. I am thinking of just enough motion to lift the lander slightly off the surface and then perhaps a little puff from a thruster could get it to move.