Space probe successfully lands on comet
Last updated: 42 minutes ago
Unmanned robot lab reaches 67P after descent from European spacecraft Rosetta following 10-year, 6.5bn km space trek.


Philae, a probe dropped from the Rosetta spacecraft, has successfully descended on a comet but its harpoons did not fire, the European Space Agency's (ESA) ground controllers say.

An hour after the landing, the ESA said that while the probe is on the surface and is functioning, its harpoons anchors did not shoot and they were looking into.

More analysis of @Philae2014 telemetry indicates harpoons did not fire as 1st thought. Lander in gr8 shape. Team looking at refire options

The 100kg robot lab, carrying 10 scientific instruments, landed at about 15:30 GMT on Wednesday on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with a confirmation signal sent to Earth about half an hour later [at about 16:00 GMT].

ESA scientists waiting for the signal at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, erupted in cheers on Wednesday once they received confirmation of the successful landing.

Touchdown! My new address: 67P! #CometLanding

"We are the first to have done that, and that will stay forever,'' said ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain.

While further checks are needed to ascertain the state of the lander, the fact that it is resting on the surface of the speeding comet is already a huge success.

Al Jazeera's Tarek Bazley, reporting from Darmstadt, said that the mood at ESA was euphoric.

"Lot of people spend their careers on their missions...for them it was an amazing day," he said.

Bazley added that there was some confusion as to what happened and that the harpoons that were supposed to activate did not fire.

He went on to speak with Gerhard Schwehm, former mission manager on the Rosetta mission, who said that the lander is on comet and they could still fire the harpoons but said that "we have to see what happens".

Philae was placed on a trajectory on Wednesday towards 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a comet now more than 510 million km from Earth and racing towards the Sun at 18km per second.

Rosetta was launched in 2004 on a 6.5bn-km space trek that saw it enter 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's orbit in August this year.

The spacecraft reached the comet - a 3km-by-5km rock discovered in 1969 - after a journey of 6.4 billion km as part of a mission that cost close to $1.8bn

Astrophysicists hope Philae will unlock knowledge about the origins of the Solar System and even life on Earth, which some believe may have started with comets "seeding" the planet with life-giving carbon molecules and water.

"By studying one in enormous detail, we can hope to unlock the puzzle of all of the others,'' said Mark McCaughrean, a senior scientific adviser to the mission.

Philae also tweeted its first image of the comet 67P, taken when it was 3km away from landing.

.@ESA_Rosetta See for yourself! ROLIS imaged #67P when we were just 3km away! Glad I can share. #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/b6mcid2fsn

Pix

A

I just love science.18km/sec is a great speed.I heard comets are icy,hope the machine survives the very low temperature.


CHECK OUT MY SIGNATURE!!!

Science all the way

Elcemento:
I just love science.18km/sec is a great speed.I heard comets are icy,hope the machine survives the very low temperature.
CHECK OUT MY SIGNATURE!!!

Yeah..great speed...The robot should be able to survive the low temp. All that would have been taken into consideration

Psylas:
Science all the way

Science has gone far my brother...6.5 billion kilometers is a lot of distance..uhhhmm

Mission facts:
Philae lander
Travelled 6.4 billion km (four billion miles) to reach the comet
Journey took 10 years
Planning for the journey began 25 years ago
Comet 67P
More than four billion years old
Mass of 10 billion tonnes
Hurtling through space at 18km/s (40,000mph)
Shaped like a rubber duck

Nice achievement......

True definition of amazing. A great history has been made. The probe landing on the comet is like a jumping on top a fast moving car comfortably. This is a great achievement. indeed science has gone very far.
This was started 10 years ago before smartphones and other fancy gadgets. Who knows other discoveries and inventions they have?

Is there a crew in the Rosetta?

Disappointed that this thread of an amazing accomplishment hasn't made the FP since yesterday.

Rosetta probe isnt carrying any crew its unmanned.....this is just like the movie"DEEP IMPACT" landing on a comet traveling at that breath taking speed makes the Matrix dodging bullets looks like a Cartoon". and in other News...#Orionspace craft is set for orbit test in December 4th.. follow the Hash tag on twitter #orionspacecraft Orion spacecraft has been designed to carry astronauts to Mars sometime late next year.

lexicon:

Space probe successfully lands on comet
Last updated: 42 minutes ago
Unmanned robot lab reaches 67P after descent from European spacecraft Rosetta following 10-year, 6.5bn km space trek.


Philae, a probe dropped from the Rosetta spacecraft, has successfully descended on a comet but its harpoons did not fire, the European Space Agency's (ESA) ground controllers say.

An hour after the landing, the ESA said that while the probe is on the surface and is functioning, its harpoons anchors did not shoot and they were looking into.

More analysis of @Philae2014 telemetry indicates harpoons did not fire as 1st thought. Lander in gr8 shape. Team looking at refire options

The 100kg robot lab, carrying 10 scientific instruments, landed at about 15:30 GMT on Wednesday on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with a confirmation signal sent to Earth about half an hour later [at about 16:00 GMT].

ESA scientists waiting for the signal at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, erupted in cheers on Wednesday once they received confirmation of the successful landing.

Touchdown! My new address: 67P! #CometLanding

"We are the first to have done that, and that will stay forever,'' said ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain.

While further checks are needed to ascertain the state of the lander, the fact that it is resting on the surface of the speeding comet is already a huge success.

Al Jazeera's Tarek Bazley, reporting from Darmstadt, said that the mood at ESA was euphoric.

"Lot of people spend their careers on their missions...for them it was an amazing day," he said.

Bazley added that there was some confusion as to what happened and that the harpoons that were supposed to activate did not fire.

He went on to speak with Gerhard Schwehm, former mission manager on the Rosetta mission, who said that the lander is on comet and they could still fire the harpoons but said that "we have to see what happens".

Philae was placed on a trajectory on Wednesday towards 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a comet now more than 510 million km from Earth and racing towards the Sun at 18km per second.

Rosetta was launched in 2004 on a 6.5bn-km space trek that saw it enter 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's orbit in August this year.

The spacecraft reached the comet - a 3km-by-5km rock discovered in 1969 - after a journey of 6.4 billion km as part of a mission that cost close to $1.8bn

Astrophysicists hope Philae will unlock knowledge about the origins of the Solar System and even life on Earth, which some believe may have started with comets "seeding" the planet with life-giving carbon molecules and water.

"By studying one in enormous detail, we can hope to unlock the puzzle of all of the others,'' said Mark McCaughrean, a senior scientific adviser to the mission.

Philae also tweeted its first image of the comet 67P, taken when it was 3km away from landing.

.@ESA_Rosetta See for yourself! ROLIS imaged #67P when we were just 3km away! Glad I can share. #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/b6mcid2fsn

####Breaking news now on CNN#####Philae lander is in good shape....and began transmitting signal moments ago...seems its hapoons ll be ignored later on as its perfectly balanced on the surface....great job ESA

igwemoagbo:
####Breaking news now on CNN#####Philae lander is in good shape....and began transmitting signal moments ago...seems its hapoons ll be ignored later on as its perfectly balanced on the surface....great job ESA

Yeah great work... But after a historic but awkward comet landing, the robot probe Philae is now stable and sending pictures - but faces concerns about its battery life.
1 hour ago

Ignatio:
True definition of amazing. A great history has been made. The probe landing on the comet is like a jumping on top a fast moving car comfortably. This is a great achievement. indeed science has gone very far.
This was started 10 years ago before smartphones and other fancy gadgets. Who knows other discoveries and inventions they have?

Is there a crew in the Rosetta?

Disappointed that this thread of an amazing accomplishment hasn't made the FP since yesterday.

Its won't make FP since there was no mention of Tonto Dike in the story.

@ question: Its unmanned.

I still wonder if we are using the same version of brain with those white folks. Those guys have gone too far..I think we need to upgrade our brain from windows 98 to the latest windows. Maybe we will think differently than politicising everything.

skynettech:
I still wonder if we are using the same version of brain with those white folks. Those guys have gone too far..I think we need to upgrade our brain from windows 98 to the latest windows. Maybe we will think differently than politicising everything.

this makes me believe evolution is real, i don't think we are one or reason alike. They are hundreds of years ahead of us, maybe they become humans(homosapiens) befor us

skynettech:


Yeah great work... But after a historic but awkward comet landing, the robot probe Philae is now stable and sending pictures - but faces concerns about its battery life.
1 hour ago

The are planning on deploying the drill bit inside, once that's gripped, they might attempt to shift it more 2wards sunlight, however the whole mission is 60 hours, battery life inside is 60 hours, average charge time is 6 hours of sunlight

erico2k2:

The are planning on deploying the drill bit inside, once that's gripped, they might attempt to shift it more 2wards sunlight, however the whole mission is 60 hours, battery life inside is 60 hours, average charge time is 6 hours of sunlight

Fantastic. But i Thought the robot is equiped with a solar panel that will be charging the ba3 ?

The Philae lander has attempted to drill into the surface of Comet 67P, amid fears that its battery may die within hours.
The European Space Agency (Esa) says the instrument is being deployed to its maximum extent, despite the risk of toppling the lander.
Scientists hope the tool will be able to capture some samples for analysis in the robot's onboard laboratories.
If the battery dies, the results may not make it back to Earth.
Philae made history on Wednesday when it was dropped by Esa's Rosetta satellite to the surface of 67P - the first time this feat has been achieved.
The probe has been returning pictures and other scientific data ever since.
Key objective
It is not known precisely where on the comet the robot is located, but the pictures it has returned indicate it is in the shadow of a cliff.
The limited sunlight the probe receives means its solar panels cannot keep the battery systems properly topped up.
Engineers doubt Philae in its current position can stay powered beyond Saturday.
The dwindling energy reserves have therefore prompted the mission team to deploy the drill now.
Although the activity is among Philae's key objectives, it is also highly risky, because the torque on the tool could destabilise the delicately placed lander.
But Esa believes that the closing power window makes that risk worthwhile.
Power possibilities
Commands were uploaded on Friday morning to deploy the drill, and early telemetry indicated it had extended 25cm from the base of the lander.
However, it was then that the orbiting Rosetta satellite, which has been relaying telecommunications from the probe, passed over the horizon and out of contact.
The results of the drilling will not now be known until Rosetta comes back around and tries to re-establish the radio on Friday night.
Stephan Ulamec, the Philae lander manager, said: "The drill has been active today. Whether it will sample and will succeed in bringing these samples to [laboratory] ovens - we shall know this evening.
"This would be fantastic but it is not secured - maybe the battery will be empty before we get contact again."
Engineers are working on potential solutions to boost the power available to the lander.
"We plan to rotate the lander a little bit so that at the position where we have now this one panel that gets sun, we'll have a slightly larger panel and this would increase the chance that at a later stage the lander could wake up again and start talking to us again," Dr Ulamec explained.

he Philae lander on the distant comet 67P re-established radio contact with Earth on Friday night, downlinking yet another stream of science data.
Everything expected from the little probe was delivered, just before low battery power dropped it into standby mode.
The robot is shadowed by a cliff and cannot get enough light on to its solar panels to recharge its systems.
Engineers fear this contact may have been its last - certainly for a while.
Philae descended to the surface of 67P on Wednesday - the first time in history that a space mission has made a soft landing on a comet.
The next opportunity to talk to Philae will come around 1100 GMT on Saturday, when the orbiting Rosetta satellite - which delivered it to the 4km-wide "ice mountain" - comes over the horizon.
But with only 1.5 hours of sunshine falling on the robot during the comet's 12-hour day, it seems doubtful the battery will have recovered enough performance to complete the radio link.
Engineers did manage to maximise the possibility of it happening, though, by sending a command to reorientate the lander.
This involved raising Philae by 4cm and rotating its main housing by 35%. This will ensure the largest solar panel catches the most light.

Even if the probe falls silent over the weekend, researchers say they are thrilled with the amount of data already acquired.
It was suggested that as much as 80% of the primary science objectives had been achieved before the latest downlink. And this will now have been boosted still further.
BBC Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott watched the radio pass from the European Space Agency's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
"It was amazing, and everyone here is elated. If you'd asked them to write down what they'd wanted from this pass - it would have been exactly this," Prof Lintott reported.
In the latest tranche of data are the results from the drilling attempt made earlier in the day.
This had been an eagerly anticipated activity. Getting into the surface layers and bringing up a sample to analyse onboard was seen as central to the core mission of Philae.
Controllers say Cosac, the Philae laboratory that was due to receive the sample, downlinked its data, but that its contents had yet to be assessed.
Among other returns, Philae took another picture of the surface with its downward-looking Rolis camera.
It also exercised its Consert instrument. This is an experiment that sees Philae and Rosetta send radiowaves through the comet to try to discern its internal structure.
And it has the additional possibility of being used to help triangulate a precise position for Philae on the comet's surface.
This is still unknown. Although the robot hit the centre of its intended landing zone on Wednesday, it then bounced twice before coming to a stop.
Knowledge of that final resting location would enable engineers better to understand its predicament and the prospects for future contact if lighting conditions somehow change on 67P.
This could happen as the comet moves through space on its journey around the Sun. It will have seasons, just as the Earth does, and this could play to Philae's advantage by altering the angle, timing and intensity of the sunlight hitting the solar panels.

lexicon:


Fantastic. But i Thought the robot is equiped with a solar panel that will be charging the ba3 ?

Ueh but landed beside a cliff which meant one of its pannel lack sunlight.well it has since switched off.

The little probe delivered everything expected from it, just as its failing battery dropped it into standby mode.
Philae is pressed up against a cliff. Deep shadows mean it cannot now get enough light on to its solar panels to recharge its systems.