News of the Comet-hunting Rosetta mission

[Rick]

[BAA-ebulletin 00823] Rosetta mission update
(c) 2014 British Astronomical Association    http://www.britastro.org/

As many members will be aware, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will attempt the first ever landing on the surface of a comet tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday Nov 12.

BAA Council member Nick James is also the Lead Engineer for the project at BAE Systems in Chelmsford. Last night he gave me an update on the sequence of events we can expect over the next few days, and you can hear what he had to say in a video released this morning on the BAA website.

The key moments on Wednesday will be:

06:00 - Rosetta delivery manoeuvre
07:35 - Final Go/No go
09:03 - Philae separates from Rosetta
09:43 - Loss of Rosetta signal during post-delivery manoeuvre
10:53 - Regain signal from Rosetta
11:59 - First descent data
16:02 - Predicted landing time
17:35 - Expected receipt of first 360 deg panorama

All times are UTC (GMT), Earth received time. Events at the spacecraft happen 28 minutes earlier.

We have our fingers crossed that all goes well, and will, of course, publish updates on the BAA website as soon as we hear news!

Dominic Ford, BAA Website Manager

[Mike]

Let's hope everything goes to plan and we get a fantastic 360º panoramic image back from the comet.

[Mac]

Let's hope everything goes to plan and we get a fantastic 360º panoramic image back from the comet.

Fingers crossed, do we know if there is a video stream available?

Mac.

[The Thing]

Let's hope everything goes to plan and we get a fantastic 360º panoramic image back from the comet.

Fingers crossed, do we know if there is a video stream available?

Mac.

Webcast live from mission control: http://new.livestream.com/esa/cometlanding
Webcast will begin 19:00 GMT (20:00 CET) 11 November and continue (with pauses) to cover crucial mission milestones overnight on Tuesday and through Wednesday. Check the ESA TV schedule here for detailed times.

[Carole]

Philae has landed on the comet.  Around 4.05 pm.  Been watching ESA live most of the afternoon.

Carole

[Rick]

Probe makes historic comet landing

European robot probe Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership.

The landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was confirmed at about 1605 GMT.

There were cheers and hugs at the control room in Darmstadt, Germany, after the signal was confirmed.

It was designed to shine a light on some of the mysteries of these icy relics from the formation of the Solar System.

The landing caps a 6.4 billion-kilometre journey that was begun a decade ago.

The lander sank about 4cm into the surface, suggesting a relatively soft surface.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30026398

[Rick]

There seems to be quite a bit of uncertainty still about just how well Philae managed to land. The thruster that was supposed to hold it in place while the harpoons fired seems not to have worked, and neither did two harpoons. The ice drills may have worked, but may not actually be bedded into anything particularly solid. I expect there will be updates...

[MarkS]

It is still a fantastic achievement!

Mark

[Fay]

Fantastic indeed, have been watching events most of the afternoon

[Rick]

It's beginning to look as if it might be on its back, and possibly not at all well attached to the surface. Hopefully they'll manage to get some surface-science back from it.

[Rick]

The BBC news story linked a few posts earlier is now saying:

Rosetta: Waiting game after comet lander glitch

A European robot probe has made the first, historic landing on a comet, but its status remains uncertain after harpoons failed to anchor it to the surface.

Officials said the craft may have lifted off the comet after touchdown before returning to the surface.

Lander project manager Stephan Ulamec said: "Maybe we didn't just land once, we landed twice."

Further analysis is needed to fully understand the situation.

However, Dr Ulamec told the BBC that at last radio contact with the probe that he believed it to be in a stable configuration.

"This is the indication right now," he explained. "We really have to wait until tomorrow morning and then we will know a lot more."

The "first" landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was confirmed at about 1605 GMT.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30026398

[Rick]

Rosetta: Comet probe Philae now stable - scientists

The robot probe Philae that made a historic comet landing is now stable after initially failing to attach to the surface, and is sending pictures.

European Space Agency scientists say they are now trying to find out where the probe is on the comet.

Engineers say it may have bounced hundreds of metres back off the surface after first touching down.

Scientists hope the probe will analyse the comet's surface to yield insights into the origins of our Solar System.

The Esa's Rosetta satellite carried Philae on a 6.4 billion-km (4bn-mile) journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The robot probe, the size of a washing machine, was dropped from the satellite on Wednesday and spent seven hours travelling down to the icy body.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30034060

...and a large version of the first image.

[Rick]

Apparently it bounced twice. The first bounce lasted about 53 minutes and the second one about 7 minutes. Not so surprising that they were having difficulty getting good information back from it, under the circumstances. The pictures suggest Philae is lying on its side...

[Carole]

There is also concern as to whether the lander is positioned to get sufficient sunlight to it's solar panels.

[Fay]

Thanks for keeping us up to date Rick, hope it all turns out well