jmjawors - 25/2/2007 4:47 PM
Don't think I've seen a photo quite like this one:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMFTZM0LYE_index_0.html
Distant approach images: http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/5/1246
http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/5/1247
During the press conference they mentioned that the different groups analyzing different data will share their results with each other in October(if i remember correctly) Why such a delay? Wouldn't it be easier to have "round table discussion" on weekly/biweekly to talk about things they see and compare to help make sense of data?
jb
btw love the saturn pic in background ...
On Danderman's point of a visit, I'd say you'd actually need a lander of some type to land on a body as big as 21 Lutetia. I'm thinking that a lunar-capable lander would be more than sufficient and would probably have enough delta-v in its respective descent and ascent stages to be used in the LOI and ROI burns too.You don't need nearly that much. Lunar gravity is 1/6 earth. Lutetia is something like 1/400th. Escape velocity is only ~50m/s.
A colorization of that Lutetia and Saturn conjunction:
Okay, that's another solar system body that we can scratch of the list of 'to be visited'. How many does that make to go? A couple of hundred-thousand? ;)
Wake up, Rosetta!
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Wake_up_Rosetta
Rosetta: Anxious wait for comet chaser wake up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25186770
Press Release
No. 1-2014
Paris, 13 January 2014
Call for Media: Rosetta wake up event
On 20 January 2014, ESAs comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft is set to wake up from 957 days in deep-space hibernation.
This is going to be epic!! :)
This is going to be epic!! :)
Let's hope so. During the SBAG meeting last week there was a Rosetta briefing. Turns out that the spacecraft wasn't just in powered-down or standby mode all this time--it was actually SHUT OFF. No active systems at all. When the briefer mentioned this there was a rather nervous rumble among the attendees. I turned to a colleague who has helped design spacecraft and asked why they would do that. He shrugged and said "To save money, I guess."
So let's hope that it does indeed wake up.
Finally, at 14:13 UTC on June 8, Rosetta switched to hibernation mode. In this mode, only its central computer, solar panels, and enough heaters to prevent the spacecraft from becoming damagingly cold are powered on. Significantly, the communications systems were powered down. There is no longer any way to communicate with the spacecraft -- not until 10:00 UTC on January 20, 2014, 31 months from now, when the spacecraft will wake up autonomously. Seven hours later, it will begin transmitting a signal to Earth, indicating that it's awake.
The spacecraft’s internal alarm clock is set for 10:00 GMT (11:00 CET) on 20 January. Once it has warmed itself up, it should re-establish communication with Earth several hours later.
Are you sure you understood that correctly? What exactly wakes it up if no system is active? If a timer, then a timer circuit is active. If a signal, then a receiver is either active or in standby. Perhaps there were language issues at play?
Put it this way: it has a timer that is supposed to wake it up, but it cannot be commanded to wake up if the timer fails. There's no active comm system as a backup, it's just off. It is apparently fundamentally different than the way that New Horizons has operated during its long cruise to Pluto.
Put it this way: it has a timer that is supposed to wake it up, but it cannot be commanded to wake up if the timer fails. There's no active comm system as a backup, it's just off. It is apparently fundamentally different than the way that New Horizons has operated during its long cruise to Pluto.
It's not different to the Huygens probe if I recall correctly. It, too, relied merely on timers to conserve battery power after separation from Cassini.
Thanks for covering David. We'll have an article ready for when the signal arrives.
Begin of track confirmed! #BOT @NASAJPL 's giant 70m Goldstone station now listening for #Rosetta #WakeUpRosetta
#Rosetta is +6 hours into its wake-up process. Should have switched into #SafeMode by this time. This will (shortly) trigger transmitter ON
“Hello, world!"Indeed!
With one-way signal time of 45mins, it will take at least 90mins to get health report from @ESA_Rosetta - for now basic radio signal only
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) January 20, 2014
WE HAVE TELEMETRY: ESA is now receiving data from ESA_Rosetta (https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta). Mission control analysing this to determine spacecraft health
ESA animations of the approach:
http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2014/01/Rosetta_s_orbit_around_the_comet (http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2014/01/Rosetta_s_orbit_around_the_comet)
Wtf? Why so complex?
#Rosettta Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo has taken a look at the data... we look good!
Wtf? Why so complex?
the nucleus is not spherical, so the gravity field itself is not symmetrical and quite complicated. moreover, there are constraints of Sun and Earth visibility.
Wtf? Why so complex?
the nucleus is not spherical, so the gravity field itself is not symmetrical and quite complicated. moreover, there are constraints of Sun and Earth visibility.
Correct, but maybe I can shed some more light here. Keep in mind that the motion is relative to the comet.
During the triangular patterns (up till about 30s in the video), Rosetta is not yet in a real orbit around the comet. Think of it more as 'formation flying' with the comet instead; those patterns allow us to get a good view of the sunlit part of the comet.
After that, we transfer into a 'global mapping' orbit at around 30 km. This is almost a terminator orbit, meaning we stay almost precisely above the day-night border. This is because we don't want to get into the coma - those 14m solar panels don't like getting sandblasted!
Finally, we go down to a 20km and then a 10km orbit, if circumstances (comet activity) allow. And, if all goes well, there are a few even more intricate manoeuvres (not depicted in the video) before lander delivery at about 3km altitude.
All in all, it's going to be an exciting mission and I'm really happy Rosetta phoned home today!
There is something I'm not getting from Chris's story. It speaks of the southern hemesphere as the landing spot as being the most consistant receiver of solar radiation for the lander's arrays. Is the comet approaching the sun south pole first? That would somewhat explain the comment about Rosetta orbiting at the day-night terminator to maintain consistant solar energy in Rosetta's arrays. Perhaps it is explained in the video but I was not able to view it. I'm getting an error trying to access it.
The colatitude is defined equal to zero at the north pole and increases up to 180
at the south pole of the comet; the longitude is given between 0 and 360, in a body fixed coordinate system, and 0 is the subsolar meridian at perihelion.
On the present orbit, the water flux comes directly from the surface of the comet and produces different spots of activity that follow the day/night variation and the shadows caused by the comet shape. [...] the water flux is shown in relation with the illumination of the surface during a comet rotation at the perihelion and aphelion of orbit. The water gas activity is directly dependent on the solar illumination. The gas activity main modulation is due to the seasonal effects: the maximum of the activity is in the southern hemisphere at perihelion and in the northern hemisphere atthe aphelion.
The gas and dust activity at the perihelion is concentrated in the southern regions that are subjected to a strong ablation, while the northern hemisphere remains ‘‘untouched” by this activity.
The nucleus that results from this odd activity, concentrated in the south polar regions, has a peculiar internal structure, with old, devolatilized terrains in the northern hemisphere and fresh, less altered terrains in the southern areas.
EDIT: Bolun was faster than me ;)Update from Rosetta's Ops Manager Andrea Accomazzo (the tense/happy guy during the coverage):
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/01/21/rosetta-update-from-mission-control/ (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/01/21/rosetta-update-from-mission-control/)
To sum up, everything looks nominal, the temperatures are just a few degrees lower than average predictions but ok. Little to no degradation found anywhere that has been checked so far. Delay in receiving the signal was due to Rosetta rebooting shortly after wake-up.
During these days, apart from systems checks, the reaction wheels will be heat up and spun to working revolutions.
ESA commissioned this excellent video explaining how Philae works using lots of Lego:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oEaGjgOB0M (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oEaGjgOB0M)
...
I bet they'll be watching those reaction wheels very carefully after previous reports about them.
http://www.spacenews.com/article/esa-controllers-buy-time-fix-glitches-comet-chaser (http://www.spacenews.com/article/esa-controllers-buy-time-fix-glitches-comet-chaser)
The propulsion problem aboard Rosetta is in the form of a leak in a helium-pressurization system that enables the propellant reservoir to direct fuel to the probe’s on-board thruster engines.
Ferri said ESA had planned to repressurize Rosetta for future operations, allowing the satellite to maximize fuel efficiency. They have now decided against that because of the risk of aggravating the leak. The resulting operations will mean Rosetta will use more fuel than it would otherwise and will fly a less-efficient route. But Ferri said the consensus is that it will still have enough fuel to complete its comet rendezvous in mid-2014.
It may be the first time a three-axis-stabilized satellite with such large solar arrays, which are not designed to be spun, has performed such a maneuver.Umm.. what? The hibernation requirement surely didn't suddenly sneak up on the mission designers. So does this mean that the design didn't plan on spin-stabilisation during the hibernation period? And banked on there being enough power to run the reaction wheels, to perform attitude changes for thermal control?
After its long deep-space hibernation, Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft woke up on 20 January to begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Its first signal was received at 18:18 GMT (19:18 CET) at ESA’s control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Receipt confirmed that Rosetta had exited hibernation, warmed up and – as planned – switched itself into ‘safe mode’, a basic level of functionality, transmitting a simple radio tone via its S-band transmitter and waiting for instructions from Earth.
Within several hours, the Flight Control Team had established full control, switching on the more powerful X-band transmitter. This allowed high-rate housekeeping information to provide a detailed look at the health and status of crucial propulsion, attitude-keeping and power systems, among many others.
Back online
After several days of detailed checks, the team have determined that the rest of the comet-chaser’s systems are also working as expected.
Reactivation of three of the four reaction wheels – spinning gyroscopes used to control attitude – went flawlessly. The fourth wheel should be reactivated in the coming weeks.
The next few weeks will be dedicated to testing and configuring onboard flight systems, including the solid-state mass memory, used to store science and operations data prior to download.
Science instrument commissioning
The next phase, lasting through April, will see science teams recommissioning Rosetta’s 11 scientific instruments. This will be done on individual schedules coordinated by the Rosetta Mission Operations Centre in ESOC.
In March, Rosetta’s lander, Philae, will also be switched on for the first time since hibernation. It, too, will be recommissioned to confirm its control systems and 10 instruments are working.
Rosetta is operating nominally in 'Normal Mode' and all platform systems have been fully re-activated. The Thermal, Power and Data Handling systems are all working. The reaction wheels – spinning wheels used to maintain Rosetta's orientation in space – are being exercised at very low speed to characterise their behaviour in this regime.
All instruments are off except for:
- The Ultra Stable Oscillator for the Radio Science Investigation
- Standard Radiation Monitor
Here is an overview of upcoming activities, with the ever-present proviso that dates, times and events may change due to operational requirements:
- 17 March – Switch on the OSIRIS imaging system; all other instruments will be switched on in the following approximately 6 weeks
- 24 March – Pending successful re-activation, OSIRIS will take a first look in the direction of the comet. The comet will be too far away (around 5 million kilometres) to resolve in these first images and its light will be seen in just a couple of pixels. These images will be acquired regularly for navigation purposes and to already start planning the trajectory corrections planned for May.
On 28 March, the lander was successfully reactivated and broke its planned radio silence by sending data to Earth from a distance of about 655 million kilometres. At 15:40 CET, packet after packet of data started to arrive for the team in the Lander Control Centre (LCC) at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). The result: "Philae is operational and ready for the next few months," said lander project manager Stephan Ulamec of DLR. In November, the lander will be deployed onto the target comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, while the Rosetta spacecraft continues to orbit the comet. The orbiter and lander will be the first to witness a comet's 'awakening' as it approaches the Sun first hand.
Today’s activities confirm that Philae is alive and well; the lander and its ten scientific instruments will undergo much more extensive checks throughout April.
Meanwhile, Rosetta’s MIDAS , COSIMA and ROSINA instruments are also being tested today. The instruments ALICE, CONSERT, GIADA, RPC, and RSI also began testing this week. And one instrument – the OSIRIS imaging system – has already passed the commissioning phase with a clean bill of health.
An image taken earlier this month – 4 June – by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera, shows comet 67P/C-G has quietened. It is the most recent full-resolution image from the narrow-angle sensor, and was taken with 430 000 km between the spacecraft and comet.
Strikingly, there is no longer any sign of the extended dust cloud that was seen developing around nucleus at the end of April and into May. Indeed, monitoring of the comet has shown a significant drop in its brightness since then.
Today, 3 July, Rosetta is at a distance of about 43 000 kilometres from comet 67P/C-G, and by the end of the weekend will be less than 36 000 km – equivalent to the altitude that geostationary satellites orbit Earth.
so... rosetta showing interesting shape of the 67P
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/07150633-quick-rosetta-update.html
Ok, I'm slightly confused by the term 'contact binary'. Can someone explain the nature of the 'contact', and the mechanisms behind them holding together?
I had assumed that the two nuclei would have approached and 'merged' (and if you would take away gravity they would stay together, since they are now one), but some of the formulations used in today's news reports made me question that notion...
Thanks.
Today's burn is complete! Just three more to go before arrival: 23 July, 3 Aug & 6 Aug.
The nucleus of the comet is clearly a contact binary -- two smaller (and unequally sized object) in close contact. [...] the two components would have come into contact at a relative speed of about 3 meters per second in order to stick together in this way.
Taking a very rough estimation of the dimensions of the twin nucleus as 4 x 3.5 x 2 km for the larger and a 2.6 km diameter for the smaller object and treating them as two co-orbiting point masses with the measured 12.76 hour rotation period I get a minimum bulk density of around 150kg per cubic meter needed to hold it all together as a contact binary
There has been quite a stir-up about the inadequate release of these images (not unlike other discussions kept here about webcasts and information release). See for example Daniel Marin's article (in Spanish) or this open letter by a German forum:
http://danielmarin.naukas.com/2014/07/17/no-esa-asi-no-o-todo-lo-que-no-hay-que-hacer-a-la-hora-de-divulgar-ciencia/
http://www.raumfahrer.net/news/raumfahrt/15072014225728.shtml
followed by the much-commented, not-so-well-thought ESA answer:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/16/access-to-rosetta-data/
...
followed by the much-commented, not-so-well-thought ESA answer:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/16/access-to-rosetta-data/
...
followed by the much-commented, not-so-well-thought ESA answer:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/16/access-to-rosetta-data/ (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/16/access-to-rosetta-data/)
Actually, the ESA blog post does a very good job of explaining the situation. People seem to forget that this policy has been around for ages: some mission release the data almost immediately, others have black-out periods up to years. Whats the big deal? Ill tell ya what the big deal is: people have become spoiled with (almost) immediate release of data from certain hi-profile space missions. Now that one doesn't some folks think it is appropriate to start acting like a bunch of spoiled little brats.
While I'll probably agree that ESA's PR in general could be vastly improved, I think in the case of Rosetta, it is quite good overall and they do well with what they are allowed to do.
It is quite unfair to critise so much them for this data release policy, which was agreed years ago with the instruments scientists and space agencies that paid for their development.
At the end of the day, ESA is not responsible for the instruments development and don't pay for it and the right on the data belongs more to CNES or DLR than ESA.
I'd love to see more frequent updates like anyone else, but at this stage, it might be difficult to change the original agreement between all parties involved, especially given the bureaucratic way of working of the various space agencies involved.
...
followed by the much-commented, not-so-well-thought ESA answer:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/16/access-to-rosetta-data/ (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/16/access-to-rosetta-data/)
Actually, the ESA blog post does a very good job of explaining the situation. People seem to forget that this policy has been around for ages: some mission release the data almost immediately, others have black-out periods up to years. Whats the big deal? Ill tell ya what the big deal is: people have become spoiled with (almost) immediate release of data from certain hi-profile space missions. Now that one doesn't some folks think it is appropriate to start acting like a bunch of spoiled little brats.
If ESA did a better job at PR in general, maybe there would be more public support for space in Europe, meaning more money for more exiting missions?
While I'll probably agree that ESA's PR in general could be vastly improved, I think in the case of Rosetta, it is quite good overall and they do well with what they are allowed to do.
It is quite unfair to critise so much them for this data release policy, which was agreed years ago with the instruments scientists and space agencies that paid for their development.
At the end of the day, ESA is not responsible for the instruments development and don't pay for it and the right on the data belongs more to CNES or DLR than ESA.
I'd love to see more frequent updates like anyone else, but at this stage, it might be difficult to change the original agreement between all parties involved, especially given the bureaucratic way of working of the various space agencies involved.
Well you thought someone might have foreseen that it was going to attract a great deal of interest, especially considering previous Comet missions.
If ESA did a better job at PR in general, maybe there would be more public support for space in Europe, meaning more money for more exiting missions?
I am quite happy with the Rosetta updates from ESA. I find the whining and sense of entitlement from some unreasonable.
If ESA did a better job at PR in general, maybe there would be more public support for space in Europe, meaning more money for more exiting missions?
Totally agree with this, NASA has much better PR in comparison.
If ESA did a better job at PR in general, maybe there would be more public support for space in Europe, meaning more money for more exiting missions?
Totally agree with this, NASA has much better PR in comparison.
That and Hollywood.
And for the rest, If the reasoning is if you pay taxes for it you should have access to it, then when will the USAF show us their black projects? I think it's very reasonable to let scientists who worked hard at this mission be the first ones to have the opportunity to make discoveries.
I think it's very reasonable to let scientists who worked hard at this mission be the first ones to have the opportunity to make discoveries.So do I. Now can you tell us how many times were Pathfinder, MER, Cassini or MSL scientists were scooped due to their raw image policy?
I am quite happy with the Rosetta updates from ESA. I find the whining and sense of entitlement from some unreasonable.
I am not sure belittling the people who pay ESA's bills through their taxes is a particularly constructive way forward.
And for the rest, If the reasoning is if you pay taxes for it you should have access to it, then when will the USAF show us their black projects? I think it's very reasonable to let scientists who worked hard at this mission be the first ones to have the opportunity to make discoveries.
Huygens (the Titan probe) was ESA. Perhaps someone could describe whether the delayed image policy was followed back then.
Burn complete! By the end of today, @ESA_Rosetta will be just 3500km from #67P - as far as Ottawa from Calgary
A brigher area in the "neck" has been discovered, it's unclear yet what it might be due to.
:o
Rosetta will orbit the comet nuclei involving...'triangular' loops/circuits/orbits???
Has any spacecraft ever carried out triangular orbits before?????
PS: However, I do think it looks a bit crazy... especially given one of the latest blog post saying that they'll need to command orbit changes twice a week from now on!
How Rosetta arrives at a comet
How Rosetta arrives at a comet
OMG: Flight Dynamics at its best... Congratulations guys, and thanks for all the postcards, Rosetta teams!
They've announced the landing site for Philae on the ESA site. They decided on a spot on the comet's 'head' dubbed 'J' and there's a backup site on the comet's 'body' in case it proves too bumpy on closer inspection. More specifics will undoubtedly be announced shortly; I just wanted to sum things up.
The "Global Mapping Phase" has been completed, I wonder if it means that ESA has a 3D model of the comet. A precise 3D model could be really cool to explore on a screen à la google earth or even could be printed.
The "Global Mapping Phase" has been completed, I wonder if it means that ESA has a 3D model of the comet.Yes. You can even download it: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/10/03/measuring-comet-67pc-g/
ok putting this here too:DLR chief Woerner is just confirming this three-time landing in German TV.
Now it seems they landed ... thrice?!
https://twitter.com/elakdawalla/status/532678187239493632
Emily Lakdawalla @elakdawalla
!!!! ........... !!! ... !! RT @Philae_ROMAP: @Philae_ROMAP magnetic field analysis revealed 3 landings at 15:33, 17:26 and 17:33 UTC
Holger Sierks (Osiris) tells the BBC there has been radio communication with @Philae2014 this AM. Now trying to image it on the surface.
the first civa image
https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532833867817033728
- Rosetta is operating nominally; the network systems and overall ground segment to control the mission are nominal
- Last night, Rosetta lost contact with Philae as expected when it orbited below the horizon just after 20:00 CET.
-Contact was re-established this morning at 06:01 UTC / 07:01 CET, and the Philae-Rosetta radio link was initially unstable.
- As Rosetta rose higher above the Philae landing site, the link became very stable and the lander could transmit telemetry (status and housekeeping information) and science data from the surface.
-This morning's surface link was again lost due to Rosetta's orbit at about 09:58 UTC / 10:58 CET. Ignacio explains that with the current orbit, Rosetta will have, typically, two Philae communication windows per day.
-The next window opens at 19:27 UTC on the spacecraft and runs through to 23:47 UTC spacecraft time.
The team are ensuring that Rosetta maintains an orbit that is optimised for lander communication support; they are planning a manoeuvre (thruster burn) today to be conducted on Friday that will help keep Rosetta where it should be. Rosetta already conducted a burn last night as part of this effort.
Rosetta is presently sending signals to the ground stations at about 28 Kbps; Ignacio says that the spacecraft's own telemetry downlink uses about 1 or 2 Kbps of this, so the rest is being used to download science data from Rosetta and lander science and telemetry from the surface.
Lander was designed with legs to perform small hops by extending the landing gear.Is the landing gear not just passive?!?
Did anyone mention the power redline at the usage and charging rates now in effect?
What's the 'drop dead' time-to-go?
Harpoon sequence was triggered upon initial touchdown, but harpoons did not actually fire. But spools WERE activated, despite the fact that the harpoons had not fired."spools" in sense of "electric coils" or what? English terms have so many meanings in different contexts... ???
Excellent overview of the landing by XKCD artist Randall Munroe:
http://xkcd1446.org/#0 (http://xkcd1446.org/#0)
Excellent overview of the landing by XKCD artist Randall Munroe:
http://xkcd1446.org/#0 (http://xkcd1446.org/#0)
Okay ... I'm getting a blank white rectangle. Did it land in a snowstorm? (it looks a lot like the current view out my kitchen window) ;)
Excellent overview of the landing by XKCD artist Randall Munroe:
http://xkcd1446.org/#0 (http://xkcd1446.org/#0)
Okay ... I'm getting a blank white rectangle. Did it land in a snowstorm? (it looks a lot like the current view out my kitchen window) ;)
"Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images."
Excellent overview of the landing by XKCD artist Randall Munroe:
http://xkcd1446.org/#0 (http://xkcd1446.org/#0)
Okay ... I'm getting a blank white rectangle. Did it land in a snowstorm? (it looks a lot like the current view out my kitchen window) ;)
"Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images."
I did -- they didn't change anything.
Excellent overview of the landing by XKCD artist Randall Munroe:
http://xkcd1446.org/#0 (http://xkcd1446.org/#0)
Okay ... I'm getting a blank white rectangle. Did it land in a snowstorm? (it looks a lot like the current view out my kitchen window) ;)
"Note: This event is over. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to browse through the images."
I did -- they didn't change anything.
How many did you click through? The first 6 are all blank.
We will deploy the MUPUS penetrator for 2/3 of the max. length and then insert it. Should happen before midnight. Keep fingers crossed
That's interesting:
https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/532968586005217280 (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/532968586005217280)QuoteWe will deploy the MUPUS penetrator for 2/3 of the max. length and then insert it. Should happen before midnight. Keep fingers crossed
That's interesting:
https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/532968586005217280 (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/532968586005217280)QuoteWe will deploy the MUPUS penetrator for 2/3 of the max. length and then insert it. Should happen before midnight. Keep fingers crossed
Link break scrambled command upload. Upload will be rescheduled (1h ago)
Upload in progress, stay tuned! (58min ago)
MUPUS is ON and should be at work already (6min ago)
We just gut confirmation that the second upload works and MUPUS should be deploying (5 min ago)
Extensive tests and math tell us that we will almost certainly not move Philae.
MUPUS PEN-EL on balcony heating up
Can see that CONSERT is active too
The deployment device will be retracted once the PEN is inserted. Lander could turn if told to thereafter
We expect a nominal radio interrupt over night. No data before tomorrow morning
The temperature on the deployment device is about -130°C, external electronics at -71°C will be heated to -48°C to start
Indeed @Philae2014 can turn, lift and tilt within a limited range. Most of it is not used right now to conserve energy.
.@NeutrinoCatcher (https://twitter.com/NeutrinoCatcher)@Philae2014 (https://twitter.com/Philae2014) The PEN should take temperatures a long as possible and will stay there
Telemetry link period over. Have to wait for next link at ~9:30 CET tomorrow. What a cliffhanger!
MUPUS signing off for tonight, it was a long exciting day. See you back in the morning #NeedSleep
Do you anticipate the PEN cable to impede an eventual@Philae2014 (https://twitter.com/Philae2014) uprigthing? Guess not given deployment is 2/3 max?@NeutrinoCatcher (https://twitter.com/NeutrinoCatcher)@ffejeryc (https://twitter.com/ffejeryc)@Philae2014 (https://twitter.com/Philae2014) No not at all. It was designed and tested to be OK
Batteries are running out - by tonight optimistic but not sure and they don't expect to get anything tomorrow. Close to end of mission.
If they do get contact tonight they might try rotating (with feet on ground) to face the Sun...other crazy ideas probably ruled out by power
Have not given up hope of hearing from @Philae2014 much later as comet changes and heats up. Still a major success already
Last night MUPUS hammered the penetrator into the ground. APXS also got to work! My team is currently checking how they did
QuoteLast night MUPUS hammered the penetrator into the ground. APXS also got to work! My team is currently checking how they did
https://twitter.com/Philae2014/status/533196634705108993
So it might just be 100% performance ;D
Friends at DLR tell me that the drill is switched on and responding to commands #cometlanding
Everything nominal so far. Current position 200 mm. We are reaching the comet soil. Link lost now, next window tonight at 22.00. Stay tuned.
frensh guy very hard to understand.. :( telemetry shows 35 cm down from something.drill 25 cm down from the lander baseplate
frensh guy very hard to understand.. :( telemetry shows 35 cm down from something.drill 25 cm down from the lander baseplate
Matt Taylor was apologising for something before he started talking, I did not get the reason.
hey kch, here is a gif of it : http://www.tanyaharrisonofmars.com/philae.gif
Sad thing is that the text in some frames goes pretty fast for normal reading speed.
ACQUISITION OF SIGNAL #AOS ESOC received contact with @Philae2014 a few moments ago; now lost and waiting re-acquisition #CometLandinghttps://twitter.com/esaoperations
SIGNAL IS BACK #AOS Stable comms w/ @Philae now reestablished - telemetry & science data are flowing from the surface of #67P #CometLandinghttps://twitter.com/esaoperations
SIGNAL IS BACK#AOS (https://twitter.com/hashtag/AOS?src=hash) Stable comms w/@Philae (https://twitter.com/Philae) now reestablished - telemetry & science data are flowing from the surface of#67P (https://twitter.com/hashtag/67P?src=hash)#CometLanding (https://twitter.com/hashtag/CometLanding?src=hash)
Preliminary checks show we operated nominally, no time outs. Hopefully se caught the comet sample ever.
I confirm that my@RosettaSD2 (https://twitter.com/RosettaSD2) went all the way DOWN and UP again!! First comet drilling is a fact! :)
Lander now performing 'lift & turn' of the main body on the landing gear - will last about 10 mins. telecomm link is good
My science team eagerly looking into the data I collected at another day on the comet!
I just started lifting myself up a little and will now rotate to try and optimize the solar power!
Also my rotation was successful (35 degrees). Looks like a whole new comet from this angle:)
@Philae_Ptolemy measurement started. I do my best to squeeze as many measurements in as possible
Landing gear on @Philae2014 lifted 4 cm & main body rotation complete. Ptolemy carousel rotated; housekeeping data are down
So much hard work.. getting tired... my battery voltage is approaching the limit soon now
I just completed a @Philae_Ptolemy measurement!!
My last scheduled measurement for part 1 of #CometLanding is @ConsertRosetta: just started!
#CONCERT (https://twitter.com/hashtag/CONCERT?src=hash) science data now coming down. What a super little machine on that comet!
L'équipe Ptolemy, ébahie devant le centre de contrôle @DLR_en (http://instagram.com/DLR_en). Leur instrument fonctionne !
There are 45 mins left in this Rosetta/lander communication pass, the flight director estimates
I will use all my remaining energy to "communicate" between@ESA_Rosetta (https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta) and myself with@ConsertRosetta (https://twitter.com/ConsertRosetta)
Toute la science a été récupérée ! La joie de l'équipe @CNES (http://instagram.com/CNES) à Cologne @DLR_de (http://instagram.com/DLR_de)
Yes, also it looks like the thermal conductivity measurement from MUPUS was not achieved, the APXS cover did not open (so no APXS integration) and it's not clear if the CONSERT measurement was finished before the low power condition. Note COSAC was the one getting the sample, not Ptolemy (it used its volatile-catching sample cell).
First off: some reported MUPUS results as found in media are wrong. They never asked us.
MUPUS TM worked fine throughout the whole timeline and sees a very cold steep wall in front of us. TM sees clear diurnal temperature signal. Around local noon direct sunlight on that wall caused a steep temperature increase and also steep temperature drop shortly after. Data indicate low thermal diffusivity and fluffy substance.
The anchors still below Philae in shadow see the diurnal heat wave as well and at the same time as TM and the solar panels.
Penetrator was deployed to the commanded distance. Remember that device had not been switched on since 2002. Temperature inside PEN dropped significantly compared to status before deployment.Might have hit a pile of stuff on the way out. Another instrument saw better performance thereafter - we might have changed Philae's attitude.
Hammering started as intended in the lowest of 3 power settings (expecting a fluffy soft surface). The depth sensor shows some up and down but no progress. The control loop increased to power setting 2. Depth sensor still shows no progress. Control loop goes to power setting 3. Still no progress! This means that the stuff is really hard! A very interesting finding, not visible from orbit!
We have a secret power setting 4. Nicknamed "desperate mode". Beyond the design specs. We activated it. The truly genius designer of the hammer, Jerzy Grygorczuk, always said "be careful with power mode 4. And still no progress. The hammer gave up and failed after 7 minutes. Jerzy was right. We were desperate, activated, were punished. Surface must be >2 MPa hard! The comet remains surprising bizarre and uncooperative. To put this into perspective: MUPUS performed beautifully inside the specifications. The comet failed to cooperate. The loss of subsurface data is sad. The detection of this very hard crust is a great find the orbiter couldn't have done.
Results (1) First off: some reported MUPUS results as found in media are wrong. They never asked ushttps://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/
Results (2) MUPUS TM worked fine throughout the whole timeline and sees a very cold steep wall in front of us @Philae2014
Results (3) TM sees clear diurnal temperature signal. Around local noon direct sunlight on that wall caused a steep temperature increase...
Results (4) ... and also steep temperature drop shortly after. Data indicate low thermal diffusivity and fluffy substance
Results (5) The anchors still below Philae in shadow see the diurnal heat wave as well and at the same time as TM and the solar panels
Results (6) Penetrator was deployed to the commanded distance. Remember that device had not been switched on since 2002
Results (7) Temperature inside PEN dropped significantly compared to status before deployment.Might have hit a pile of stuff on the way out
Results (8 ) Another instrument saw better performance thereafter - we might have changed Philae's attitude
Results (9) Hammering started as intended in the lowest of 3 power settings (expecting a fluffy soft surface)
Results (10) The depth sensor shows some up and down but no progress. The control loop increased to power setting 2
Results (11) depth sensor still shows no progress. Control loop goes to power setting 3. Still no progress!
Results (12) This means that the stuff is really hard! A very interesting finding, not visible from orbit!
Results (13) We have a secret power setting 4. Nicknamed "desperate mode". Beyond the design specs. We activated it
Results (14) Still no progress. The hammer gave up and failed after 7 minutes. Jerzy was right. We were desperate, activated, were punished
Results (15) Surface must be >2 MPa hard! The comet remains surprising bizarre and uncooperative
Results (16). To put this into perspective: MUPUS performed beautifully inside the specifications. The comet failed to cooperate
Results (17) The loss of subsurface data is sad. The detection of this very hard crust is a great find the orbiter couldn't have done
Terrestrial analogues: Sandstone has about 5-15MPa, Granite 5-20MPa Tensile strenght
Carefull investigation of this will keep us busy (and happy) for the next months
Check literature for KOSI experiments after Halley in late 80's. Which are the origin of MUPUS
As soon @Philae2014 wakes up we can continue with monitoring the thermal environment around us. That would be really valuable
We have readings from depth sensor, hammer performance and thermal data. The conclusion is all indicative to hard surface.
Condensed from @Philae_MUPUS (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS):QuoteFirst off: some reported MUPUS results as found in media are wrong. They never asked us.
MUPUS TM worked fine throughout the whole timeline and sees a very cold steep wall in front of us. TM sees clear diurnal temperature signal. Around local noon direct sunlight on that wall caused a steep temperature increase and also steep temperature drop shortly after. Data indicate low thermal diffusivity and fluffy substance.
The anchors still below Philae in shadow see the diurnal heat wave as well and at the same time as TM and the solar panels.
Penetrator was deployed to the commanded distance. Remember that device had not been switched on since 2002. Temperature inside PEN dropped significantly compared to status before deployment.Might have hit a pile of stuff on the way out. Another instrument saw better performance thereafter - we might have changed Philae's attitude.
Hammering started as intended in the lowest of 3 power settings (expecting a fluffy soft surface). The depth sensor shows some up and down but no progress. The control loop increased to power setting 2. Depth sensor still shows no progress. Control loop goes to power setting 3. Still no progress! This means that the stuff is really hard! A very interesting finding, not visible from orbit!
We have a secret power setting 4. Nicknamed "desperate mode". Beyond the design specs. We activated it. The truly genius designer of the hammer, Jerzy Grygorczuk, always said "be careful with power mode 4. And still no progress. The hammer gave up and failed after 7 minutes. Jerzy was right. We were desperate, activated, were punished. Surface must be >2 MPa hard! The comet remains surprising bizarre and uncooperative. To put this into perspective: MUPUS performed beautifully inside the specifications. The comet failed to cooperate. The loss of subsurface data is sad. The detection of this very hard crust is a great find the orbiter couldn't have done.
Condensed from @Philae_MUPUS (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS):QuoteFirst off: some reported MUPUS results as found in media are wrong. They never asked us.
MUPUS TM worked fine throughout the whole timeline and sees a very cold steep wall in front of us. TM sees clear diurnal temperature signal. Around local noon direct sunlight on that wall caused a steep temperature increase and also steep temperature drop shortly after. Data indicate low thermal diffusivity and fluffy substance.
The anchors still below Philae in shadow see the diurnal heat wave as well and at the same time as TM and the solar panels.
Penetrator was deployed to the commanded distance. Remember that device had not been switched on since 2002. Temperature inside PEN dropped significantly compared to status before deployment.Might have hit a pile of stuff on the way out. Another instrument saw better performance thereafter - we might have changed Philae's attitude.
Hammering started as intended in the lowest of 3 power settings (expecting a fluffy soft surface). The depth sensor shows some up and down but no progress. The control loop increased to power setting 2. Depth sensor still shows no progress. Control loop goes to power setting 3. Still no progress! This means that the stuff is really hard! A very interesting finding, not visible from orbit!
We have a secret power setting 4. Nicknamed "desperate mode". Beyond the design specs. We activated it. The truly genius designer of the hammer, Jerzy Grygorczuk, always said "be careful with power mode 4. And still no progress. The hammer gave up and failed after 7 minutes. Jerzy was right. We were desperate, activated, were punished. Surface must be >2 MPa hard! The comet remains surprising bizarre and uncooperative. To put this into perspective: MUPUS performed beautifully inside the specifications. The comet failed to cooperate. The loss of subsurface data is sad. The detection of this very hard crust is a great find the orbiter couldn't have done.
Edit: there were so many updates subsequently posted, it ended up like a live blog entry.
@Philae_MUPUS (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/533763965948792832)
We know it touched because otherwise it would move rapidly 'down' with respect to the depth sensor. And "they" heard us knock
Wondering if Rosetta has been able to use it's orbital parameters to better determine 67p's mass?Of course. The team have already created gravity models to support navigation and landing.
Can anyone point me in a direction to find out more detail on rosetta's orbital dynamics about the comet?You should be able to find basic descriptions on the ESA site, like http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/08/21/determining-the-mass-of-comet-67pc-g/
OSIRIS spots Philae drifting across the comet (http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/OSIRIS_spots_Philae_drifting_across_the_comet)
COSAC PI: Drill tried to deliver sample. Ovens heated up. But data show no actual delivery. "There’s nothing in it."
Organic molecules detected by Philae. Dr Fred Goessmann, principal investigator on the Cosac instrument, which made the organics detection, confirmed the find to BBC News. But he added that the team was still trying to interpret the results.http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30097648
“We have collected a great deal of valuable data, which could only have been acquired through direct contact with the comet,” said Ekkehard Kuhrt, scientific director for the Philae mission at DLRhttp://spaceflightnow.com/2014/11/18/philae-finds-comet-harbors-organics/
Because part of the MUPUS package was contained in the harpoons, some temperature and accelerometer data could not be gathered. However, the MUPUS thermal mapper, located on the body of the lander, worked throughout the descent and during all three touchdowns.
At Philae’s final landing spot, the MUPUS probe recorded a temperature of –153°C close to the floor of the lander’s balcony before it was deployed. Then, after deployment, the sensors near the tip cooled by about 10°C over a period of roughly half an hour.
the team have made the preliminary assessment that the upper layers of the comet’s surface consist of dust of 10–20 cm thickness, overlaying mechanically strong ice or ice and dust mixtures.
MUPUS could be used again if we get enough power.
Philippe Gaudon: "We know within 100 meters where Philae but we must especially consider its orientation, its distance from the orbiter. We'll know more within 15 days, including data from the Osiris camera on Rosetta installed "
Although the ovens worked correctly, the scientists do not yet know how much – if any – material was actually delivered to the ovens by SD2,[...]Because Philae was not anchored to the comet surface, it is also possible that, if the drill touched a particularly hard surface material, it moved the lander instead of drilling into the surface. [...]But other instruments on board Philae can help understand what actually happened. For example, the downward-looking ROLIS camera obtained two images of the surface under the balcony,http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/19/did-philae-drill-the-comet/
[...]
. The final site where Philae landed does not enjoy long exposure to sunlight, but on the other hand, it opens new perspectives. As the lander appears to be currently shielded by walls, the local temperature may be lower than it would have been at the chosen landing site. So if Philae wakes up, it might remain operative much longer than expected, possibly until perihelion, which is extremely exciting."
From next week, Rosetta’s orbit will be selected and planned based on the needs of the scientific sensors. After arrival on 6 August, the orbit was designed to meet the lander’s needs.
On 3 December, the craft will move down to height of 20 km for about 10 days, after which it will return to 30 km.
With the landing performed, all future trajectories are designed purely with science as the driver, explained Laurence O’Rourke and Michael Küppers at the Rosetta Science Operations Centre near Madrid, Spain.
“The desire is to place the spacecraft as close as feasible to the comet before the activity becomes too high to maintain closed orbits,” says Laurence.
“This 20 km orbit will be used by the science teams to map large parts of the nucleus at high resolution and to collect gas, dust and plasma at increasing activity.”
Planning the science orbits involves two different trajectories: ‘preferred’ and ‘high-activity’. While the intention is always to fly the preferred path, Rosetta will move to the high-activity trajectory in the event the comet becomes too active as it heats up.
Additional burns planned for today, 22 and 26 November will further adjust the orbit to bring it up to about 30 km above the comet [...] On 3 December, the craft will move down to height of 20 km for about 10 days, after which it will return to 30 km.
“The desire is to place the spacecraft as close as feasible to the comet before the activity becomes too high to maintain closed orbits,” says Laurence.“This 20 km orbit will be used by the science teams to map large parts of the nucleus at high resolution and to collect gas, dust and plasma at increasing activity.” Planning the science orbits involves two different trajectories: ‘preferred’ and ‘high-activity’. While the intention is always to fly the preferred path, Rosetta will move to the high-activity trajectory in the event the comet becomes too active as it heats up.
Early next year, Rosetta will be switched into a mode that allows it to listen periodically for beacon signals from the surface.
A few updates:
Philae's APXS may have measured a bit of cometary dust after all: http://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/63080.php (German)
The sound of touchdown: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/20/the-sound-of-touchdown/
"Scratch and sniff": samples from two places in the comet's surface: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26584-philae-lander-sleeps-but-rosetta-mission-lives-on.html
Full report at ESA's Rosetta's main site: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/20/the-sound-of-touchdown/QuoteAdditional burns planned for today, 22 and 26 November will further adjust the orbit to bring it up to about 30 km above the comet [...] On 3 December, the craft will move down to height of 20 km for about 10 days, after which it will return to 30 km.
“The desire is to place the spacecraft as close as feasible to the comet before the activity becomes too high to maintain closed orbits,” says Laurence.“This 20 km orbit will be used by the science teams to map large parts of the nucleus at high resolution and to collect gas, dust and plasma at increasing activity.” Planning the science orbits involves two different trajectories: ‘preferred’ and ‘high-activity’. While the intention is always to fly the preferred path, Rosetta will move to the high-activity trajectory in the event the comet becomes too active as it heats up.
Early next year, Rosetta will be switched into a mode that allows it to listen periodically for beacon signals from the surface.
Thanks.
So that reinforces a previous update that the teams are not even going to attempt any communications with Philae until 2015. So even if by some miracle it was to have enough power to communicate, it has either been commanded not to, or (most definitely) will not have anything listening for it.
What kind of orbit will Rosetta be in once the coma is at it's maximum? I mean, how is Rosetta going to protect itself?
[PM] We will have to increase the distance to the comet and keep Rosetta close to the terminator plane (plane separating day and night side of the comet). There the coma activity is expected to be lower and also the solar panels (that are always pointing to the Sun) are edge-on to the incoming gas, so that the drag force is reduced and the less amount of dust particles hit the solar arrays.http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2mw5ko/we_are_working_on_flight_control_and_science/cm865db
But still we want to observe the comet activity from close distances. To do so, the plan is that Rosetta will perform several comet fly-bys with miss distances in the range 8-50 km.
Hi. You knew the thruster on top of Philae wasn't functional since the first Go/NoGo decisions in the evening of 11th November.
Which was the reason for you decided to go ahead (Paolo Ferri said you would have had another landing opportunity in a couple of weeks)? Perhaps you thought it was just a false alarm? Or maybe you realised it was a failure it wasn't possible to fix anyway?
Thank you and congratulations for your historical achievement.
Hi there [IT],http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2mw5ko/we_are_working_on_flight_control_and_science/cm861w5
I was present in the discussions following the failure to prime the ADS system, and the decision to GO was taken as follows: First we posed the question 'Is there anything else that can be done to re-attempt a priming?'. The answer was 'No', since the primary priming procedure already took all possible steps (multiple commanding of both priming lines). Therefore it was clear that the ADS was out, and having a NO GO would not help clear the situation. After this we asked 'Can the landing be attempted without the ADS?'. The answer to this was 'Yes, but with higher risk.' This risk could not be mitigated, but there was not alternative, so we decided to cross fingers and release the lander.
What is the speed of Rosetta relative to the comet?
PM: Right now Rosetta is in a 30 km circular orbit around the comet with a (really slow) relative velocity of 0.15 m/s (0.54 km/h).http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2mw5ko/we_are_working_on_flight_control_and_science/cm85i8c
Which is the "moving power" of the landing gear? Any technical document available? (I can only find them for alternative landing gear) Could it even allow "hopping", or it can just raise the lander body?
Was the flywheel causing lander rotation on its Z axis while landing?
Why was the flywheel turned off immediately after landing? What's the issue with a running flywheel in an anchored lander?
Was the flywheel stopped by means of a brake or just by its own friction?
The landing gear can do several things that each require a different amount of power. It can rotate, raise and lower the Lander and tilt the Lander. The amount of energy required also depends on the size/duration of the movement. We tried to "hop" by raising the Lander right before switch-off, but the ROLIS picture taken afterwards doesn't show any movement. :( Yes, the flywheel was rotating the Lander about the Z-axis at a very stable rate. We weren't expecting to hop so that's why we turned off the flywheel. It did spin down for about 40 minutes after, in which time the Lander was quite stable. Afterwards, you can see the solar array on the top wobbling about at a pretty regular interval (it was recieving constant sunlight up to then). The flywheel doesn't have a brake, but spins down. - VLLhttp://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2mw5ko/we_are_working_on_flight_control_and_science/cm86v22
On what kind of orbit is Rosetta now? Even if OSIRIS' resolution isn't enough to directly see Philae now, would it be possible to see sun reflect from its solar panels? Kind of how one can see sun reflect from cars, windows and ditches while flying at 10km, or how it's possible to see satellites moving across the nightsky, brightening rapidly just for a moment when all the sunlight reflects from the solar panels.
It's at a distance of about 30km now. As we know when the lander received its sunlight on the single panel which gave it power, then we can plan (and are planning) our OSIRIS images to do a scan in that area at a similar time in the comet day. So yes, you are completely correct. This is certainly one way we will use to identify the lander - the solar panels have a much higher albedo than the background comet. [LOR]http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2mw5ko/we_are_working_on_flight_control_and_science/cm872g2
In addition to the on-going visual searches using OSIRIS and NAVCAM images, the CONSERT experiment is helping scientists to locate Philae’s final landing site.
CONSERT, or the Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio wave Transmission, is an experiment that works between the Rosetta orbiter and the Philae lander. It works by transmitting radio signals from the orbiter to the lander, and when the geometry is right, the signals pass through the nucleus of the comet, allowing its interior to be analysed.
The signals are received on the lander, where some data is extracted, and then immediately a new signal is transmitted back to the orbiter, where the main experimental data collection occurs. As the radio waves pass through different parts of the cometary nucleus, variations in propagation time and amplitude occur, and these can be used to determine various properties of the internal material and carry out a form of ‘tomography’.
But CONSERT is also being used to help identify the location of the lander, in combination with work performed by ESOC Flight Dynamics, the Philae lander team, the ESA Rosetta Science Ground Segment, and the OSIRIS camera team.
By making measurements of the distance between Rosetta and Philae during the periods of direct visibility between orbiter and lander, as well as measurements made through the core, the team have been able to narrow down the search to the strip presented in the image shown above. The determination of the landing zone is dependent on the underlying comet shape model used, which is why there are two candidate regions marked.
Planned high-resolution imaging by OSIRIS will be used to study the CONSERT predicted area.
The CONSERT team also need to know where Philae is before they can fully analyse their scientific data.
A few updates:(SOUNDS LIKE CRUNCHING SNOW)
The sound of touchdown: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/20/the-sound-of-touchdown/
Full report at ESA's Rosetta's main site: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/20/the-sound-of-touchdown/Quote
QuoteReddit interface is very confusing... I think I'm gonna lose most of the updates/replies...
. The expected surface erosion may well reach 1 m per comet orbit.http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wojciech_Marczewski/publication/224987616_MUPUS__A_Thermal_
The ESA Rosetta Mission entered active operations around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in early August 2014. The full nucleus will be mapped at multiple resolutions before the Philae landing in November. The mapping will include imaging using the full spectral range of the Narrow Angle Camera of the OSIRIS imaging system (245nm to 1000nm in 11 optical filters). The color mapping will be done under good illumination condition at ~1m/pixel as part of the pyramid arc approach phase. This will later be followed by higher resolution imaging (down to 20 cm/pixels) of parts of the nucleus. These higher resolution images are acquired under somewhat worse illumination conditions because of the high angle between the orbital plane and the Sun direction.
This contribution will discuss the color variegation observed on the comet surface and its relationship to surface morphology and cometary activity.
is there a fixed publication date by now for the first post-arrival papers from the orbiter instrument teams? Have those papers been submitted already, and if so, covering data til which time? And ... will the world finally get to see some close-up OSIRIS images (i.e. from the low orbital phase) at the time the papers appear?
The first round of papers have been submitted to the journal Nature. The papers have gone through review an should be published soon.
The papers should show images from the closest 10km orbit.
(Stubbe Hviid - Co-Investigator of the OSIRIS camera on Rosetta at DLR-PF/Berlin)
There is no fixed publication date, but the hope is that the first round of papers from the orbiter teams, or at least from many of the orbiter teams, will be in early to mid-December. Quite a few papers have been submitted and sent out to independent, scientific referees. The teams are now revising the papers to address the questions raised by the referees. These papers will include papers from the OSIRIS team with some fairly close-up pictures. (Michael F. A'Hearn - Astronomy Professor (emeritus) and Principal Investigator of the Deep Impact mission)http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2nhhd8/we_are_comet_scientists_and_engineers_working_on/cmdmk9m
- After the first touchdown, the spin rate started increasing. As the lander bounced off the surface, the control electronics of the flywheel were turned off and during the following 40 minutes of flight, the flywheel transferred its angular momentum to Philae. After this time, the lander was now spinning at a rate of about 1 rotation per 13 seconds;
- At 16:20 GMT spacecraft time the lander is thought to have collided with a surface feature, a crater rim, for example.
“It was not a touchdown like the first one, because there was no signature of a vertical deceleration due to a slight dipping of our magnetometer boom as measured during the first and also the final touchdown," says Hans-Ulrich. “We think that Philae probably touched a surface with one leg only – perhaps grazing a crater rim – and after that the lander was tumbling. We did not see a simple rotation about the lander’s z-axis anymore, it was a much more complex motion with a strong signal in the magnetic field measurement.”
- Following this event, the main rotation period had decreased slightly to 1 rotation per 24 seconds;
- At 17:25:26 GMT Philae touched the surface again, initially with just one foot but then all three, giving the characteristic touchdown signal;
Today, @ESA_Rosetta conducted 1st of 2 thruster burns to take it down to a circular 20x20km terminator orbit #67P details later in the blog
Rosetta’s OSIRIS team have produced a colour image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it would be seen by the human eye. As anticipated, the comet turns out to be very grey indeed, with only slight, subtle colour variations seen across its surface. [...]
Maybe Philae has been "unofficially" found?Source for this image is Mattias Malmer in http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=7896&view=findpost&p=216485
I don't think that's Philae, personally. It looks to me like it would be illuminated far longer than Philae was reported to be.Malmer concluded it was probably a bright rock
The "philae glint" is most probably a bright rock. The search continues.
Rosetta will continue in its 30 km orbit until 3 February, before building up to its closest flyby yet. On 4 February, Rosetta will start to move some 140 km from the comet, before swooping down to just 6 km from the surface on 14 February.[/font][/size]http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/01/06/rosetta-in-2015/ (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/01/06/rosetta-in-2015/)
Emily Lakdawalla @elakdawalla · Dec 17 (https://twitter.com/elakdawalla/status/545257241834565633)
Bibring is confident Philae will wake, as early as Feb-March; they are planning "post-hibernation science" phase #AGU14
MUPUS on Philae @Philae_MUPUS · Dec 18 (https://twitter.com/Planetguy_Bln/status/545382203085975552)
Analysis of HK and comparison with SESAME data shows that we might have survived Mode 4 after all. Hammering was just slower at the end
MUPUS on Philae @Philae_MUPUS · Dec 19 (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/545735537764864000)
Most importantly: the hammer is not damaged. If the penetrator is upright and sticks in sime dust or ice, it may be restarted.
MUPUS on Philae @Philae_MUPUS · Dec 19 (https://twitter.com/Philae_MUPUS/status/545735811501948928)
We would use it in mode 3 only. There is a chance, though, that the penetrator lies flat on the surface. That would be the end of it.
Among the other topics covered during the wide-ranging briefing:
Dordain conceded that he himself had difficulty getting access to images of Comet 67P taken by Europe’s Philae lander in November — a consequence of the fact that images from Philae and its mothership, the Rosetta comet-chaser satellite, are embargoed for six months before being released publicly.
Dordain said the principal investigators for the Rosetta and Philae instruments have spent years waiting for their data and should be given the first look at the results. But he said the public has rights as well — especially for a mission such as Philae/Rosetta, which has received global attention. How to square these two valid interests, he said, is worth reviewing.
Papers and OSIRIS narrow cam hires images are out! :)
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6220.toc
I wonder if we'll ever get access to the full library of raw OSIRIS images, someday...Yes, it will all go into PDS eventually: http://www.sciops.esa.int/index.php?project=PSA&page=rosetta
the processing on some of the ones on the ESA site is weird (is that... .gif style dithering...?)It is. I get the feeling they just uploaded the "print ready" files for the Science papers.
ESA’s Rosetta probe is preparing to make a close encounter with its comet on 14 February, passing just 6 km from the surface.
Yesterday was Rosetta’s last day at 26 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, marking the end of the current orbiting period and the start of a new phase for the rest of this year.
Today, Rosetta is moving into a new path ahead of a very close encounter next week. First, it will move out to a distance of roughly 140 km from the comet by 7 February, before swooping in for the close encounter at 12:41 GMT (13:41 CET) on 14 February. The closest pass occurs over the comet’s larger lobe, above the Imhotep region.
The flyby will take Rosetta over the most active regions of the comet, helping scientists to understand the connection between the source of the observed activity and the atmosphere, or coma.
In particular, they will be looking for zones where the outflowing gas and dust accelerates from the surface and how these constituents evolve at larger distances from the comet.
According to recent model calculations, the southern half of Comet 67P/C-G (right image) could lose a dust layer of up to 20 metres during one orbit. Due to the seasonal cycle of the comet, the northern half (left and centre images) is much less subject to erosion.
Interesting fact: the teams are planning a flyby through the jets during the summer.
1. Fly Rosetta away from the comet to such a distance that it's trajectory is no longer affected by gas- and dust emissions from the comet. Rosetta will then be put in extended hibernation and essentially trail 67P in it's orbit towards aphelion. Under this scenario, a small amount of fuel will be preserved to possibly to support a wake-up of Rosetta four years from now, when the comet is at aphelion. Assuming Rosetta survives the four year hibernation, a short science stint would be performed at aphelion.
The last I heard, there was some hope that they might be able to power up Philae again due to the comet's changing position relative to the Sun. Any follow-up on that?
The last I heard, there was some hope that they might be able to power up Philae again due to the comet's changing position relative to the Sun. Any follow-up on that?
Yes. Still good hope to pull this of. MCC will start listening for Philae from March 12th forward.
Initial wake-ups will almost immediately result in shut-down again, due to insufficient power for transmitter activation. But later on the power coming from the solar arrays on Philae will be sufficient to overcome the transmitter transient and keep on functioning.
There was also a note on Philae's battery, but I would have to look that up when I get back home. Am at work right now.
The last I heard, there was some hope that they might be able to power up Philae again due to the comet's changing position relative to the Sun. Any follow-up on that?
Yes. Still good hope to pull this of. MCC will start listening for Philae from March 12th forward.
Initial wake-ups will almost immediately result in shut-down again, due to insufficient power for transmitter activation. But later on the power coming from the solar arrays on Philae will be sufficient to overcome the transmitter transient and keep on functioning.
There was also a note on Philae's battery, but I would have to look that up when I get back home. Am at work right now.
If that works it may actually turn out as a lucky stroke. In its present position Philae will be able to survive much longer through perihelion yielding very valuable data. In the planned position it would have died from heat long before that.
- Part five of the highly succesfull Rosetta cartoon series (Once upon a time...) has been finished. Fred has seen it, and it will released to YouTube shortly.
- Part five of the highly succesfull Rosetta cartoon series (Once upon a time...) has been finished. Fred has seen it, and it will released to YouTube shortly.
here it is:
[youtube]33zw4yYNGAs[/youtube]
Accessed my notes:
- The current location of Philae sees the lander being much colder than anticipated. This is actually not such a bad thing, because it will likely prevent Philae from overheating.
- Particularly the battery of Philae is sensitive to prolonged cold periodes. The much colder conditions at the present landing location may already have resulted in battery failure. If not, it may eventually lead to battery failure.
[...]
Waiting for a signal from Philae
http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151_read-12972/#/gallery/311
Waiting patiently for Philae
http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151_read-13123/#/gallery/2564
At the end of May even more detailed images will be released in the NAVCAM image browser and in the Planetary Science Archive. This release will again cover two months – this time October and November – and therefore cover the transition from the 30 km mapping phase down to just 10 km from the comet’s surface. In addition, the image release will cover the exciting period leading up to and during the landing, including the days in which Philae was operating on the surface of Comet 67P/C-G.http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/29/ma...s-800-to-30-km/ (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/29/major-release-of-navcam-images-800-to-30-km/)
Europe will launch a new bid Friday to communicate with its comet lander Philae, hurtling towards the Sun some 360 million kilometres (224 million miles) from Earth, ground operators said[/size]Philae's orbiting mothership Rosetta will reopen communications lines for 10 days to listen for any call from the slumbering robot, Paris-based Rosetta project manager Francis Rocard of France's CNES space agency told AFP on Thursday.
It's location on the surface of the dusty iceball has been narrowed down to an area of about 30 by 50 metres (98 by 164 feet). But Rosetta's cameras have not yet spotted the probe, and scientists don't know if it is upright."meters"??? ???
QuoteIt's location on the surface of the dusty iceball has been narrowed down to an area of about 30 by 50 metres (98 by 164 feet). But Rosetta's cameras have not yet spotted the probe, and scientists don't know if it is upright."meters"??? ???
I lost an update?!?
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-contact-europe-comet-probe.html#jCp (http://phys.org/news/2015-05-contact-europe-comet-probe.html#jCp)[/size]
Press release, 11 June 2015ESA view on the topic: https://rosetta.cnes.fr/fr/retrouve-philae (https://rosetta.cnes.fr/fr/retrouve-philae) ("maybe we found it!")
The search for Philae – like a needle in a haystack
BBC Sky at Night at 8 this evening on BBC4 will feature Rosetta.
Absolutely fantastic news.Yes! I'm pretty sure it was on this radiopodcast:
I wonder if landing in a ditch/gully will be a blessing disguise. It should protect Philae from the out-gassing, which will increase dramatically as it gets ever nearer to the sun.
I believe Philae is lying at an angle which will make drilling difficult. It would be the icing on the cake for the mission if they can use the legs again to jolt the lander into a more upright position for drilling into the surface of the comet.At least they know what mistake they made, and how to correct it, concerning the firing of the harpoon. Which is not only a landing help, but is also designed to give data about hardness and subsurface temperature in whatever it penetrates into once fired. Maybe it is already pointing at a vertical target? Heard about that from an ESA guy in this talk:
hey kch, here is a gif of it : http://www.tanyaharrisonofmars.com/philae.gif
Sad thing is that the text in some frames goes pretty fast for normal reading speed.
Here it is as a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPmPAAVJA6M
https://rosetta.cnes.fr/fr/jai-eu-la-chance-de-voir-le-reveil-de-philae (via Google Translate)
What will happen now?
Philippe Gaudon: "In a first time, we have to try to extend telecommunication sessions. There are 2 possible limitations: it can be the energy available on Philae that is still a fair bit, but it can also be a question of alignment with the orbiter antenna Philae. So we'll try to find a better position compared to Rosetta and Philae it involves changes paths and closer, keeping of course a margin of safety to the growing activity of the kernel does not disrupt the orbiter . It will take several days, a week, to implement these changes and, during this period, we remain attentive to Philae, but we do not plan to send commands. For this we will need a more stable and long liaison. "
Once the connection is optimized, how will you proceed to revive the instruments?
Philippe Gaudon: "We have already established the logic of implementation of the different instruments favoring the first time in those who consume little, do not move anything on board and therefore not likely to jeopardize the lander. Then, we will use those consuming a little more and that do not require travel, such as cameras and chemical analyzers. After only in a third time, will the instruments that involve a mechanical deployment and may jeopardize the stability of Philae. "
Is the last Saturday received data contained information on the status of the battery?
Philippe Gaudon: "Yes and the good news is that the compartment is close to 0 ° C and it is reportedly charging.
Possible replay?Replay will probably be here later, they dump pretty much everything from ESA Live there:
http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/ESA_Web-TV
ugly resolution.
Replay now online (also for download): http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/06/Replay_of_Rosetta_conference
Is the downloadable version any better?The MP4 is 768x432 - default PAL+ 16:9 resolution, like - afaik - all ESA Live broadcasts.
First of Philae’s science operations to start will be Sesame, Romap and Mupus, followed by Consert, Civa and Rolis, and then finally the more complex, risky and power-hungry ones. http://sen.com/news/healthy-comet-lander-philae-is-ready-to-get-back-to-work (http://sen.com/news/healthy-comet-lander-philae-is-ready-to-get-back-to-work)
philae/db_curent_5_landung.php?filename=pssh_v_sbat-c.json (http://db_curent_5_landung.php?filename=pssh_v_sbat-c.json)
Is there an independently-powered real-time clock on Philae? And did it manage to hold correct time through the deep freeze? I've been wondering how reliable the timestamps in the "historical" data are (after wake up, before recontact with Rosetta). Did the clock test to its epoch during the deep freeze, and the reason we know that it woke up some weeks before being able to contact Rosetta simply because the timestamps in the most recent packets are several weeks past the epoch?
From my experience, I'd expect that every time that Philae plunged into night without having charged its battery that the timestamps would reset to the epoch.
Papers!
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/19/rosetta-tracks-debris-around-comet/
Search for satellites near comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using Rosetta/OSIRIS images (http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/forth/aa25979-15.pdf)
ABSTRACT (my bold)[/size]
Context. The European Space Agency Rosetta mission reached and started escorting its main target, the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, at the beginning of August 2014. Within the context of solar system small bodies, satellite searches from approaching spacecraft were extensively used in the past to study the nature of the visited bodies and their collisional environment.
Aims. During the approaching phase to the comet in July 2014, the OSIRIS instrument onboard Rosetta performed a campaign aimed at detecting objects in the vicinity of the comet nucleus and at measuring these objects’ possible bound orbits. In addition to the scientific purpose, the search also focused on spacecraft security to avoid hazardous material in the comet’s environment.
Methods. Images in the red spectral domain were acquired with the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera, when the spacecraft was at a distance between 5 785 km and 5 463 km to the comet, following an observational strategy tailored to maximize the scientific outcome. From the acquired images, sources were extracted and displayed to search for plausible displacements of all sources from image to image. After stars were identified, the remaining sources were thoroughly analyzed. To place constraints on the expected displacements of a potential satellite, we performed Monte Carlo simulations on the apparent motion of potential satellites within the Hill sphere.
Results. We found no unambiguous detections of objects larger than ∼ 6 m within ∼ 20 km and larger than ∼ 1 m between ∼ 20 km and ∼ 110 km from the nucleus, using images with an exposure time of 0.14 s and 1.36 s, respectively. Our conclusions are consistent with independent works on dust grains in the comet coma and on boulders counting on the nucleus surface. Moreover, our analysis shows that the comet outburst detected at the end of April 2014 was not strong enough to eject large objects and to place them into a stable orbit around the nucleus. Our findings underline that it is highly unlikely that large objects survive for a long time around cometary nuclei.
ESA today confirmed that its Rosetta mission will be extended until the end of September 2016, at which point the spacecraft will most likely be landed on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
12 min is already a pretty long connection isn't it? As far as i understood so far connections have been a lot shorter?I have yet to understand if log duration matches with link duration.
I wonder how did Philae survive the cold soak as normally that would have ruined the batteries and damaged the circuit boards.It was designed to survive extreme cold. It may have gone beyond the nominal limits, but these things are usually built with margin. After landing, the team said they expected it to have a good chance of survival, which indicates that expected conditions were not far beyond the absolute limits.
ESA confirms this in recent FAQ. They're in trouble figuring out when the logs refer to.
From my experience, I'd expect that every time that Philae plunged into night without having charged its battery that the timestamps would reset to the epoch.
ESA confirms this in recent FAQ. They're in trouble figuring out when the logs refer to.
From my experience, I'd expect that every time that Philae plunged into night without having charged its battery that the timestamps would reset to the epoch.
1 July 2015
A number of the dust jets emerging from Rosetta’s comet can be traced back to active pits that were likely formed by a sudden collapse of the surface. These ‘sinkholes’ are providing a glimpse at the chaotic and diverse interior of the comet.
Rosetta has been monitoring Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s activity for over a year, watching how its halo of dust and gas grows as the comet moves closer to the Sun along its orbit.
From a distance of a few hundred kilometres, Rosetta observes an intricate pattern of the dust jets emitted from the nucleus as they stream out into space. But now, thanks to high-resolution images from the OSIRIS camera from distances of just 10–30 km from the comet centre last year, at least some of these dust jets can be traced back to specific locations on the surface, the first time this has ever been seen.
Whats all this, then?
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-micro-organisms-features-comets.html
Whats all this, then?
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-micro-organisms-features-comets.html
Quite widely reported. In a way it's a bit of a non-story in my view as nothing can be proved either way without the right instruments.
Extremely frustrating reporting on this topic. They're making it sound like this idea is being proposed by the current lead scientists of the mission, or just scientists in general. You know, the giant monolithic entity known as "Scientists"...
For example: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/06/philae-comet-could-be-home-to-alien-life-say-top-scientists
Time for another huge wave of people being misinformed by shoddy reporting and then later becoming resentful of the whole endeavor when told no, that wasn't true...
Another article talking about the (to put it mildly) skepticism: http://sen.com/news/scientists-skeptical-about-life-on-comet-claim
Yes but it does defend their right to say it and to put forward their paper. An important point that shouldn't be forgotten in the huffing and puffing over the reporting of it.
Yes but it does defend their right to say it and to put forward their paper. An important point that shouldn't be forgotten in the huffing and puffing over the reporting of it.
Oh yes, they have a definite right to bring up whatever ideas they wish. The hyping over it is what's bothering me. I still remember (and still am faintly traumatized by) some of the reactions to the whole "NASA is making a warp drive" thing, along the lines of "Why is NASA doing all this stuff in orbit when they could be building a starship? This is dumb!"
Another problem may be that the lander simply can’t hear. After analyzing the data received from last month’s sporadic contacts, engineers have determined that at least one of the lander’s two receivers is broken. If the second receiver is similarly compromised, then the mission is effectively over.
But there are reasons for optimism. Philae has already beaten long odds by switching back on and, though taciturn, it seems to be in good shape. Each brings new opportunities to hear a signal. Team members have put summer vacations on hold and are keeping an eye on their phones during the weekends.
After all, Dr. Geurts said, talking to Philae may have its up and downs, “but it’s not boring.”
The outburst gave scientists a rich insight into the workings of the comet, but it also introduced caution into Rosetta’s flight plan. Engineers are worried dust could interfere with Rosetta’s navigation system — as it has before — and the probe is now positioned more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the comet.
“This is the brightest jet we’ve seen so far,” said Carsten Güttler, OSIRIS team member at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany. “Usually, the jets are quite faint compared to the nucleus and we need to stretch the contrast of the images to make them visible — but this one is brighter than the nucleus.”
Rosetta’s sharp-eyed OSIRIS camera caught the plume in its viewfinder, and another sensor on Rosetta detected spikes in the abundances of several molecules in the coma, or gas cloud, surrounding Comet 67P. Compared to measurements two days earlier, carbon dioxide levels doubled, methane concentrations quadrupled and hydrogen sulfide increased by a factor of seven, according to ESA.
“This first ‘quick look’ at our measurements after the outburst is fascinating,” said Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator for Rosetta’s ROSINA instrument at the University of Bern. “We also see hints of heavy organic material after the outburst that might be related to the ejected dust. But while it is tempting to think that we are detecting material that may have been freed from beneath the comet’s surface, it is too early to say for certain that this is the case.”
A human sniffing the mixture of gases around Comet 67P would likely recoil in disgust. Hydrogen sulfide, for example, gives off the foul odor of a rotten egg.
The jet was at its most intense for just a few minutes. In the course of less than 40 minutes, the plume suddenly shot out from the comet’s collar and rapidly weakened.
.... on 23 September, Rosetta will depart on a three-week excursion that will take it up to 1500 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, much farther than it has been since arriving at the comet in August 2014.
The main science goal driving this course of action is to study the coma of 67P/C-G on a broader scale while the comet's activity is still high in the post-perihelion phase. While almost all instruments on Rosetta will be operating during the excursion, this exploration of the coma at large will be especially interesting to study the plasma environment of the comet with the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) instruments.
Here is cool video:
Excuse me, by what is the mT/s symbol for? I read it as milli Tesla, but that couldn't be a measure of dust release.Metric tonnes per second perhaps?
That's Mg/s or tonne/sec. T (capital t) means Tesla. m (small caps m) means milli (1/1,000), and M (capital m) means Mega (or 1,000,000 x ). The article stated 1,000kg/s exactly for that. Because the SI is simple but you have to take care of the symbols.Excuse me, by what is the mT/s symbol for? I read it as milli Tesla, but that couldn't be a measure of dust release.Metric tonnes per second perhaps?
The OSIRIS dataset from both the wide- and narrow-angle cameras covering the period 20 June 2014 – 16 September 2014 are currently in processing and are foreseen for release via the Archive Image Browser and the Planetary Science Archive early next week.
how official is this twitter account?Not official at all. There's nothing at all in the official Philae Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/Philae2014
https://twitter.com/IamPhilaeLander
it confirms tonight's contact
how official is this twitter account?
https://twitter.com/IamPhilaeLander
it confirms tonight's contact
New contact with Philae ??
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=8036&view=findpost&p=228763
ESA? Are you there? :oThere is nothing to report. The very short burst of comms from Philae to Rosetta only show that Philae is still alive. But there is nothing usefull to gain from it. Earlier, when Rosetta awoke from it's winter slumber there were high hopes to do some usefull science again. But that didn't work out. The energy levels on Philae were just too low to have it operate for any extended period of time and no stable communications were established between Philae and Rosetta.
it would have been far more embarassing if ESA had announced contacting Philae in December and then had to apologize for rushing the announcement. I think in this case ESA has actually done what it had to do!Yes and the reported "contacts" so far has been very short bursts, probably just strong enough for Rosetta to pick up. Nothing too exciting as those kind of contacts can't relay any useful data at all.
according to someone on a French forum, some of these alleged "contacts" occurred when Philae was not even in sight of the orbiter. they look more likely to be some kind of receiver glitch.By the way, did anybody calculate/find/read/heard the approximate latitude and longitude of the CONSERT area supposedly hosting Philae?
At which distance from the comet the OSIRIS resolution will reach 0.5m/pixel?Pixel size on Osiris NAC is 0.0186mrad, i.e. 0.5m at 26.9 km.
REAL status report:Real? As opposed to ...?
In the night of 21-22 December, 2015, the receiver on Rosetta was triggered, but analysis showed that this was not a transmission from the lander.Is false? If so, what specific evidence do you have?
I think money for Philae are over, just like they were when NASA Spirit incidentally died.If you are implying that Spirit was killed to save money, this is completely wrong and incredibly offensive to all the who worked extremely hard to rescue it.
Google for "philae" and limit search to last week: you'll find dozens of pages dated around 28 december stating that Philae is now definitely dead for ever.REAL status report:Real? As opposed to ...?
are you claiming that http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/01/08/philae-status-report-time-is-running-out/ (http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/01/08/philae-status-report-time-is-running-out/)QuoteIn the night of 21-22 December, 2015, the receiver on Rosetta was triggered, but analysis showed that this was not a transmission from the lander.Is false? If so, what specific evidence do you have?
edit:Spirit was short in money already few MONTHS after landing, and NASA was close to decide to turn one rover off; I don't think a double 10-years mission was in budget, it was just redundancy.Quote from: mcgyverI think money for Philae are over, just like they were when NASA Spirit incidentally died.If you are implying that Spirit was killed to save money, this is completely wrong and incredibly offensive to all the who worked extremely hard to rescue it.
What happened in last day of life of Spirit was a shame and can be summarized as:This is totally at odds with the historical record. The effort and resources expended trying to save and re-contact Spirit are well documented.
NASA: "we could do this last move today, or we could do it tomorrow morning; if it fails, we'll have to retry after the winter. Ok, let's wait tomorrow!"
Tomorrow:
NASA: "O sorry,Spirit is no more responding. Let's hope it will wake up after some months without energy and heating".
After the winter:
NASA: "Sorry, it's dead".
This is totally at odds with the historical record. The effort and resources expended trying to save and re-contact Spirit are well documented.I followed the mission day by day, reading all dozens of reports about all dozens of attempts and incredible efforts.
Then, suddenly, right a step before a possible success, just a few hours before last sunset, they just gave up, delaying last attempt to next morning, hoping in more power available ( ??? After a whol night???). It was astonishing and horrible to read.
Of course, next day Spirit didn't respond at all.
I should have saved that last report for the records. My fault. Years later I was not able to find it anymore.
Eventually, 4 false positives are really a weird concidence. First "false positive" has even a count of received packages!
no contact after the flywheel was spun
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28752-philae-lander-fails-to-respond-to-last-ditch-efforts-to-wake-it/
Welcome from the Lander Control Center.
On Sunday we tried to activate the Philae flywheel through blind commanding in an attempt to change Philae position.
We have not got any feedback on its success but this could also be the signal going from Philae to Rosetta. For this reason the OSIRIS camera on Rosetta took a sequence of images.
These images are being investigated now and looked in for dust clouds which could have been caused by Philae change in position . We'll get back to you when we have more news.
Is this transcript right? It looks a little weird ???Maybe he means that maybe the command was properlly executed, but Philae could not (and could ever more...) communicate result to Rosetta... which makes him useless/dead-like. :-(
"this could also be the signal going from Philae"? A dust cloud caused by rotation?Quote
We have not got any feedback on its success but this could also be the signal going from Philae to Rosetta [which is missing]. .
Did anybody, by any chance, save the raw telemetries data from June and July? I can't find them anymore... :-[philae/db_curent_5_landung.php?filename=pssh_v_sbat-c.json (http://db_curent_5_landung.php?filename=pssh_v_sbat-c.json)
The only thing is that the time stamp is I think it is coming from the orbiter.
The charging of the battery looks promissing. I look forward for a nice file with COSAC data with sniffing of tha active comet.
There are no large caverns inside Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA's Rosetta mission has made measurements that clearly demonstrate this, solving a long-standing mystery.
In a new study, published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, a team led by Martin Pätzold, from Rheinische Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln, Germany, have shown that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is also a low-density object, but they have also been able to rule out a cavernous interior.
This result is consistent with earlier results from Rosetta's CONSERT radar experiment showing that the double-lobed comet's 'head' is fairly homogenous on spatial scales of a few tens of metres.
The most reasonable explanation then is that the comet's porosity must be an intrinsic property of dust particles mixed with the ice that make up the interior. In fact, earlier spacecraft measurements had shown that comet dust is typically not a compacted solid, but rather a 'fluffy' aggregate, giving the dust particles high porosity and low density, and Rosetta's COSIMA and GIADA instruments have shown that the same kinds of dust grains are also found at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ...
Rosetta has detected the noble gases krypton and xenon while flying close to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last month. The detections were made during dedicated orbits between 10 and 31 May, which took the spacecraft to within 10 km of the comet’s surface, and sometimes as close as 5 km.
Rosetta is set to complete its mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September.
The mission is coming to an end as a result of the spacecraft’s ever-increasing distance from the Sun and Earth. It is heading out towards the orbit of Jupiter, resulting in significantly reduced solar power to operate the craft and its instruments, and a reduction in bandwidth available to downlink scientific data.
Tomorrow, 27 July 2016 at 09:00 UTC / 11:00 CEST, the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on Rosetta will be switched off. The ESS is the interface used for communications between Rosetta and the lander, Philae, which has remained silent since 9 July 2015.
Switching off the ESS is part of the preparations for Rosetta's end of mission. By the end of July 2016, the spacecraft will be some 520 million km from the Sun, and will start facing a significant loss of power – about 4W per day. In order to continue scientific operations over the next two months and to maximise their return, it became necessary to start reducing the power consumed by the non-essential payload components on board.
No signal has been received by Rosetta from Philae since last July and earlier this year the lander was considered to be in a state of eternal hibernation. In spite of this, the ESS was kept on until now in the unlikely chance that Philae would re-gain contact. Although Rosetta has reached altitudes well below 10 km over the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, however, no signal from the lander was received since July 2015.
The decision was taken by the mission manager and will be implemented by the Rosetta Mission Operations Centre, in coordination with the DLR Lander Control Center and the Rosetta Science Ground Segment.
If you can't find it in the wider image, it's partly because the NSF forum is, at least for me, cutting off most of it in the expanded view. It's just above the middle on the extreme right edge.For me (Chrome on RHEL) the whole image is shown. But you have to use multiple scroll bars to see it
Hooray!It's giving us on Earth "the bird" Doug saying "finally"! ;D
Funny thing, it would appear that the third leg should be pointing right back at the observer's position in the OSIRIS picture. I don't see any sign of it. Does it just sort of disappear from view because we're looking at end-on?
I grabbed the annotated image (http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/09/Philae_close-up_labelled)from the ESA site:
I think the lower of the two visible legs is pointing towards us. It's at a small angle wrt where it's supposed to be, maybe the legs got twisted around by all the bouncing?
The third leg is not visible as it's behind the lander.
I grabbed the annotated image (http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/09/Philae_close-up_labelled)from the ESA site:
I think the lower of the two visible legs is pointing towards us. It's at a small angle wrt where it's supposed to be, maybe the legs got twisted around by all the bouncing?
The third leg is not visible as it's behind the lander.
OK, I see what you're saying. I have interpreted the bottom leg as being below and behind the lander, with the third leg's geometry having it pointing directly at me.
It's hard to see how a third leg can actually be behind the lander here, that's one reason why I'm not seeing it the way you propose. So, maybe that leg is collapsed, or off the vehicle?
I thought we saw all three legs in sunshine in the CIVA pan, though. I could be wrong about that, though.
Close-up of the Philae lander, imaged by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 2 September 2016 from a distance of 2.7 km. The image scale is about 5 cm/pixel. Philae’s 1 m-wide body and two of its three legs can be seen extended from the body. The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation.
So are they going to put Rosetta down on the surface near it?The landing target is on the other side of the small lobe.
Is the target site close to Philae, and will Rosetta be able to see Philae during its descent?
Rosetta’s planned touchdown site is on the small comet lobe, but on the opposite side from where Philae has been located at Abydos. Due to a combination of orbital dynamics and illumination reasons, the current trajectory plan does not see Rosetta pass over Philae during the descent.
For us in the USA what are the times in Eastern Daylight Savings Time will the events take place please?
Collision Burn start confirmed, monitoring the progress #CometLanding @ESA_Rosettahttps://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/781607323945013249
End of #CometLanding Collision Burn confirmed at 20:51:39 UTC, duration around 208s. Next stop #67P! @ESA_Rosettahttps://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/781608745537245184
@ESA_Rosetta's thruster temperatures during #CometLanding Collision Burn, with @mggtTaylor in attendance. All set for tomorrow...https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/781610269155987456
EOM Article by Chris Gebhardt:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/09/esa-historic-rosetta-mission-comet-67p/
Overnight, Rosetta took the final 5 NavCamimages; these are now being analysed (we'll share shortly) #CometLanding
Is there any chance it could "survive" the landing. I'm sure most the instruments will be damaged but the bus should survive (minus some propellent breach). Does ESA have any plans of trying to contact it after landing and just say "hey can you still hear me?" or did they just hit the kill switch with that final transmission?Rosetta will be configured so that safe mode will put the spacecraft into ground test mode, with the transmitter and propulsion off. The attitude disturbance upon impact is expected to trigger that safe mode. In any case, the HGA beamwidth is only one degree, and there would be no way to maintain antenna pointing from the surface.
The usual 1 congratulatory post OK now, Chris? If so, great job to all involved at ESA, and the intrepid spacecraft as well!!!
I don't see why not. We're still waiting for some photos of course.
Scientist with a great british accent ' just like Philae, we have only just scratched the surface' - the science from the data collected and analysis thereof is continuing.
Comet from 51 m – wide-angle camera
Rosetta's last image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken shortly before impact, at an estimated altitude of 51 m above the surface.
The image was taken with the OSIRIS wide-angle camera on 30 September.
The image scale is about 5 mm/pixel and the image measures about 2.4 m across.
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/09/Comet_from_51_m_wide-angle_camera
Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Comet from 51 m – wide-angle camera
Rosetta's last image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken shortly before impact, at an estimated altitude of 51 m above the surface.
The image was taken with the OSIRIS wide-angle camera on 30 September.
The image scale is about 5 mm/pixel and the image measures about 2.4 m across.
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/09/Comet_from_51_m_wide-angle_camera
Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Updated in Twitter: the last image was taken not from 51 m as previously reported, but only ~20 m (!!!)
“These results come from computations of the comet’s orbit from the present to the past, which is computationally difficult due to the chaosity of the orbit caused by close encounters with Jupiter,” says Galiazzo. “Thus the details are obscure but we can establish a dynamical pathway from its current orbit back to the Kuiper belt.”
Galiazzo and Wiegert think that 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is relatively new to the inner parts of our solar system, having only arrived about 10,000 years ago. Prior to this time, the comet would have been inactive in frozen storage far from the Sun.
Previous studies show that similar comets — known as Jupiter Family comets — historically stay in the inner parts of our solar system for 12,000 years, therefore recognizing comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as a member of the Jupiter Family makes sense.
Images returned from the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission indicate that during its most recent trip through the inner solar system, the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was a very active place - full of growing fractures, collapsing cliffs and massive rolling boulders. Moving material buried some features on the comet's surface while exhuming others. A study on 67P's changing surface was released Tuesday, March 21, in the journal Science.
It lasted for roughly an hour, producing around 18 kg of dust every second
The images showed the location of the outburst: a 10 m-high wall around a circular dip in the surface.
Rosetta was, by chance, flying through the plume and looking at the right part of the surface when it happened
How such energy was released remains unclear. Perhaps it was pressurised gas bubbles rising through underground cavities and bursting free via ancient vents, or stores of ice reacting violently when exposed to sunlight
#ROSETTA OSIRIS #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO new albums --ROSETTA EXTENSION 2 MTP030-- Miércoles 1 Junio 2016 all filters stacked
https://twitter.com/landru79/status/988490703075463168?s=20Quote#ROSETTA OSIRIS #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO new albums --ROSETTA EXTENSION 2 MTP030-- Miércoles 1 Junio 2016 all filters stacked
Amazing little clip.
Scientists have found that molecular oxygen around a comet is not produced on its surface, as some suggested, but may be from its body.
Austrian filmmaker Christian Stangl combined some of the more than 400,000 images taken by @ESA's Rosetta mission into a stunning short film: "the Comet."
Together the images show details of Comet 67P, which Rosetta followed and researched for 2 years: vimeo.com/347565673
An unexpected companion
Last week marked five years since ESA’s Rosetta probe arrived at its target, a comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (or 67P/C-G). Tomorrow, 13 August, it will be four years since the comet, escorted by Rosetta, reached its perihelion – the closest point to the Sun along its orbit. This image, gathered by Rosetta a couple of months after perihelion, when the comet activity was still very intense, depicts the nucleus of the comet with an unusual companion: a chunk of orbiting debris (circled).
Comet 67P/C-G is a dusty object. As it neared its closest approach to the Sun in late July and August 2015, instruments on Rosetta recorded a huge amount of dust enshrouding the comet. This is tied to the comet’s proximity to our parent star, its heat causing the comet’s nucleus to release gases into space, lifting the dust along. Spectacular jets were also observed, blasting more dust away from the comet. This disturbed, ejected material forms the ‘coma’, the gaseous envelope encasing the comet’s nucleus, and can create a beautiful and distinctive tail.
A single image from Rosetta’s OSIRIS instrument can contain hundreds of dust particles and grains surrounding the 4 km-wide comet nucleus. Sometimes, even larger chunks of material left the surface of 67P/C-G – as shown here.
The sizeable chunk in this view was spotted a few months ago by astrophotographer Jacint Roger from Spain, who mined the Rosetta archive, processed some of the data, and posted the finished images on Twitter as an animated GIF. He spotted the orbiting object in a sequence of images taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 21 October 2015. At that time, the spacecraft was at over 400 km away from 67P/C-G’s centre. The animated sequence is available for download here.
Scientists at ESA and in the OSIRIS instrument team are now looking into this large piece of cometary debris in greater detail. Dubbed a ‘Churymoon’ by researcher Julia Marín-Yaseli de la Parra, the chunk appears to span just under 4 m in diameter.
Modelling of the Rosetta images indicates that this object spent the first 12 hours after its ejection in an orbital path around 67P/C-G at a distance of between 2.4 and 3.9 km from the comet’s centre. Afterwards, the chunk crossed a portion of the coma, which appears very bright in the images, making it difficult to follow its path precisely; however, later observations on the opposite side of the coma confirm a detection consistent with the orbit of the chunk, providing an indication of its motion around the comet until 23 October 2015.
Scientists have been studying and tracking debris around 67P/C-G since Rosetta’s arrival in 2014. The object pictured in this view is likely the largest chunk detected around the comet, and will be subject to further investigations.
Comet 67P/C-G is currently in the outer Solar System, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and will have its next perihelion in late 2021.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger (CC BY 4.0)