Yes, and yes it sounds like it worked. So they may get some information about the surface material.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Rosetta spacecraft pulls alongside comet - landing on comet in November
- Thread starter Incognito
- Start date
- Status
MisterAnderson
Member
Guys...I feel sick to my stomach.
http://gizmodo.com/philaes-bad-landing-turns-the-rosetta-mission-into-a-ra-1658486911
:'(
http://gizmodo.com/philaes-bad-landing-turns-the-rosetta-mission-into-a-ra-1658486911
:'(
:/ That sucks...
Pretty depressing actually. Poor guy is gonna just waste away up there.
Master Yoshi
Member
NOOO! 
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
I'm new be nice
Member
I didn't even expect it to be on the comet without being anchored to it, I figured if it bounced off it once that'd be it, so I think it's pretty amazing that they were able to get a clear picture of the surface (my favorite part of any space mission).
This was an incredible mission all around
This was an incredible mission all around
Maybe... maybe they can use the drill to kind of push it a little bit?
That seems to be the plan. Get as much work done on the initial battery charge, try the drills towards the end of the battery window if that fails they may try the harpoons (which are far more risky as they generate more force: although the fact the lander did reland twice on initial setdown when the forces are much greater means that may be feasible)
jchap
Member
Maybe... maybe they can use the drill to kind of push it a little bit?
I believe they said they may try this to pop up a bit and reposition as a last ditch effort before the batteries die.
The first round of scientific work was designed to be completed in 2.5 days, which they'll have enough time for:
How long will the lander operate on the comet nucleus?
The Rosetta lander, called Philae, will touch down on the comet's surface on 12 November 2014. The science observations will start immediately. During the first 2.5 days the first series of scientific measurements will be completed. During this phase the lander will operate on primary battery power. In a second phase that may last up to three months, a secondary set of observations will be conducted, using backup batteries that will be recharged by the energy from the solar cells on the lander. However, no one knows precisely how long the lander will survive on the comet.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Frequently_asked_questionsThe Rosetta lander, called Philae, will touch down on the comet's surface on 12 November 2014. The science observations will start immediately. During the first 2.5 days the first series of scientific measurements will be completed. During this phase the lander will operate on primary battery power. In a second phase that may last up to three months, a secondary set of observations will be conducted, using backup batteries that will be recharged by the energy from the solar cells on the lander. However, no one knows precisely how long the lander will survive on the comet.
It's certainly not the situation that they wanted to be in, but they knew this would be risky and will still be able to complete many of their primary science objectives with the lander.
DiscoJer
Member
I don't think any of them have actual nuclear reactors, but some have radioactive material and use the heat generated by decay for energy. Nuclear batteries, basically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator
Dunno why they didn't. Probably asking themselves that now.
Curiosity uses plutonium. It shutdowns and let's the radiation to build up energy to the batteries from isotopes. Guess ESA didn't have the resources.
Don't think ESA ever used radioisotope generators, I assume they deem it too risky in case something goes wrong during launch. Also, those batteries are quite big and heavy as far as I'm aware - typically bigger than Philae itself.
Also, there's a real shortage of the particular isotope of plutonium you need for those batteries. It used to be manufactured along with nuclear bombs, but they don't make em like they used to. http://www.isciencetimes.com/articl...um-problem-deep-space-exploration-battery.htm
mocolostrocolos
Member
Oh...
QuicheFontaine
Member
Fire the harpoons! No point letting it just fade away up there.
anonymous_abc
Member
The girl or guy responsible for the harpoon must be hella upset right now.
anonymous_abc
Member
Well it would appear that they are getting as much work done as possible.
UnblessedSoul
Member
10 years for this project to happen and they dont even have a plan B, what a mess and a waste of time.
This comet was plan B. You say like it would be trivial to have a way to solve this.
Hardly a waste of time.
They do have plan B, C, D, etc.
You always build these missions with various failure states in mind.
there's something of an ultimate limit of what you can handle since the thing is so far away, everything must be triggered by automation or uplink, and you're literally dealing with something that hasn't been done before. Nobody has the user manual for dealing with comet landings because we're writing it right now.
Right now their plan is to do as much science as they can with the battery they have (primary mission). They will then take the gamble of trying to flip it over, but only after they've maximized the data they can get in the current state. There's no point to trying to correct it now and walking away with zero science done because you tried to get back to 100% success instead of 50%.
In the last 10 years they did a flyby on two different comets, 3D-scanned Geryasimov comet and studied the surrounding atmosphere before landing. The mission was practically a success before the landing occured.
I think the broken thruster was the worst issue. The harpoons and the drill feet both relied on it in some way. Bet THAT guy is tossing and turning in his sleep.
I just hope they can hatch some crazy-ass desperate plan to get the lander upright at the last possible moment, before the batteries are entirely gone.
Watching a few ESA vids on YouTube there's a surprising amount of tools on the lander that could be abused in this nearly zero-g environment.
<Hollywood>Twist the legs against the main body so that the face of the main body that houses the mupus deployment arm faces the ground, then use that to push the lander off the ground. Orient the lander in space by retracting or extending its feet and futzing around with the reaction wheel. Fire the harpoons when the lander is at an angle to the ground so that it is pulled away from the cliff and its shadow. Obviously the program that facilitates all of this is coded in Visual Basic by some brat that somehow got into the control room while the team watches in awe.</>
Or drag the lander around using the deployment mechanism of the legs. Would be pretty hilarious if they ended up with a somewhat mobile lander. Fuck the drill, we're gonna crawl around on the comet and photograph every little detail.
Anything goes after the battery has been (nearly) depleted, right? No point in wasting a perfectly good lander after it has done everything it can in its current state.
I don't think you comprehend the difficulty in doing what they've accomplished to this point.
Rosetta (the satellite) was the main mission, they never had that much hope that the lander would be successful (I think they said it was a 1 in 4 chance) mainly because they didn't know the composition of the comet so they had to make a mass of assumptions. The whole point of the lander was to work out information about the composition of the comet, and even within the small time window it has it'll accomplish at least some of that.
And even if it goes dark today, it may pop back into life when comet gets closer to the sun, if the manoeuvring they attempt doesn't send the lander off into space or flip it upside down.
I think that human understanding of maths and physics has proven overwhelmingly successful so this paves the way for further experiments that require this kind of logistics.
with more current technology maybe we can send stuff as far an arrive in 4 or 5 years instead of 10?? that would be awesome.
I believe that if all these space programs would give results faster, both positive or negative, goverments would be more inclined to finance them.
imagine you have your hard earned $.25 quarter and wanna play the arcade, insert the coin and all you see is " game will load in 5 days! exciting discoveries ahead!", most will say "fuck this, I am taking my quarter elsewhere"
with more current technology maybe we can send stuff as far an arrive in 4 or 5 years instead of 10?? that would be awesome.
I believe that if all these space programs would give results faster, both positive or negative, goverments would be more inclined to finance them.
imagine you have your hard earned $.25 quarter and wanna play the arcade, insert the coin and all you see is " game will load in 5 days! exciting discoveries ahead!", most will say "fuck this, I am taking my quarter elsewhere"
UnblessedSoul
Member
The fact that the lander is such a barebones machine with 0 regard for what ifs, means they had 0 confidence in even reaching the comet in the first place. If you dont have confidence dont green light the mission it's really simple. But if their main mission was elsewhere with Rosetta then I can understand where most of the investment went.
So many things wrong with this post.
Rosetta itself is the main mission, and that mission was a complete success. Nobody knew if it would even be possible to deploy Philae, so that thing was obviously designed to be as small and "cheap" as possible. Any data Philae collects, and it has already collected some data, is a bonus.
The mission is a success, no idea what you are talking about.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
Says internet forum dweller.
Napoleonthechimp
Member
When discussing issues about the inclusion of women in science it is probably best not to undermine your point by calling the scientist in question an "asshole" and "bearded idiot" based entirely on the shirt he is wearing.
I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/7213819/your-bowling-shirt-is-holding-back-progress
I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing: http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/7213819/your-bowling-shirt-is-holding-back-progress
Ah yes, The Verge, the place to go when you are bored of tech, gaming and science news and want to delve into social issues that are blown out of proportions...
Planes need two wings to fly, and if they fall off there's no plan B. That doesn't mean we shouldn't make planes.
Sending something on the other side of the solar system is a whole other beast. You have to take everything in consideration, including the fact that you'll face many problems once you get into uncharted territory (plus, there's no way of fixing anything once it's up there).
It has landed, it has taken pictures, it has sent a shitload of data for the scientists. Even if it can't do everything it was meant for, it's hardly a waste - and some issues are being worked on as we speak.
Unhandled Exception
Member
So basically you spoke about the mission being a waste of time before even knowing what the actual point of the mission was.
What's even more funny is that he wore the shirt as a shoutout to the wife of his tattoo artist. Because they're friends and she designed it for him as a birthday present.
UnblessedSoul
Member
Never said the mission was a waste of time, stop putting words in my mouth, if you want me to be more specific about "plan B" I'm referring to the lander itself.
Unhandled Exception
Member
Honest question - did you know Rosetta was a much bigger project than the completely optional exploratory lander mission before you posted your bit about "plan B"? Cause calling the lander mission a "mess" and "waste of time" really points to this being the case. That and your follow up post ended with quite a bit of back pedaling.
blu
Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Perhaps you should stop puting words in your own mouth?
Feel free to elaborate what "this project" meant in your original post, and what "waste of time" signifies.
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll