SUCCESS! - Landing On A Comet - First & second descent images inside!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

Last edited Wed Nov 12, 2014, 02:08 PM - Edit history (5)

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Landing On A Comet: The Rosetta Mission

One of the coolest space missions in years is about to reach a dramatic climax over the next day or so as the ESA's Rosetta Comet Landing Mission prepares to fire it final thruster burn to position itself above the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko presently several million miles away from Earth. Rosetta’s Philae probe is set to make the first-ever landing on a comet when it touches down later today.

Separation of the lander is planned for about 09:03 GMT (10:03 CET), and touch down should follow about seven hours later, at 16:02 GMT (17:02 CET).

To watch the mission to land on the comet, click on this link http://rosetta.esa.int/
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A Brief History of the Rosetta Mission

Rosetta was launched in 2004 and, including several swings back by its home planet, Earth, in gravity assist maneuvers that ramped up Rosetta's speed to 84,000mph, spent 10 years traveling to arrive at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014. It is the first mission in the history of space exploration to rendezvous with a comet, escort said comet as it orbits the Sun, and then to deploy a lander to the comet's surface.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

« A close up image of the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as taken by Rosetta upon it's arrival to the core of the comet. Click HERE for a larger version.


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Landing on the Comet

ESA astronaut Alexander » Gerst performs a demonstration of how ESA’s Rosetta mission will attempt to put a lander, called ‘Philae’ on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Rosetta will come to within 2.5 km of the comet's surface to deploy Philae, which will then take about 2 hours to reach the surface. Because of the comet's extremely low gravity, a landing gear will absorb the small forces occurring during landing while ice screws in the probe's feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction.

Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. Then it will use solar cells to recharge and attempt to operate for several further weeks to months, depending on the activity of the comet and how quickly the solar cells are covered in dust.
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Follow the Action!

Follow this historic event via live updates posted in the following channels:

• 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.



• Rosetta blog: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta - Updated with news and information direct from the mission operations and science teams.

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• Twitter:
  http://www.twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta
  http://www.twitter.com/esaoperations
  http://www.twitter.com/philae2014
  http://www.twitter.com/esascience

All channels and webpages, including the Twitter, Rosetta Facebook and ESA Flickr social media accounts, are linked from the main Rosetta mission page: http://rosetta.esa.int

[Surya Gayatri]

1. Thanks so much for all of these links, CTD. Here in Europe,

the morning news is full of updates and reports from mission control.
Amazing achievement, if they can pull it off.
Talk about aiming for a needle in a haystack!
(A needle flying at 18,000 km. a second!)

[ChisolmTrailDem]

3. You're very welcome, Surya! nt

[tomm2thumbs]

2. Thanks for posting - am enjoying the live feed - Lander has separated

yay

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. tomm2thumbs, thank you! I live for stuff like this =) nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

5. Philae takes a look back at the mother ship...

:large

[Javaman]

6. What is the estimated time for touchdown EST? nt

[randome]

7. I thought it was around 2am CST this morning.

But confirmation of that landing will take hours more.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[ChisolmTrailDem]

8. An hour or so from now, Javaman. Live feed here: http://rosetta.esa.int/

Live feed here: http://rosetta.esa.int/

[ChisolmTrailDem]

9. Latest image: Philae from Rosetta...

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. Tweet from ESA/Rosetta...

https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532547063607984128

[ChisolmTrailDem]

10. Tweet from Neill DeGrasse Tyson...

Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson · 43m 43 minutes ago

Yup. We’re soft landing on a comet today. Normally my “We” means @NASA. But in this case it’s @ESA, the European Space Agency

https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/532539486450638848

[ChisolmTrailDem]

12. "We're close now, very close!" - ESA

[ChisolmTrailDem]

13. This drama and excitement is playing out over 500,000,000km from Earth. nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

14. Touchdown window has been reached - 36 mins til touchdown. nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

15. A Tweet from Captain Kirk...

William ShatnerVerified account ‏@WilliamShatner

So the away team Philea is on it's way down to the comet's surface. Fingers crossed! #CometLanding

https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/532550560491126785

[ChisolmTrailDem]

16. Over to mission control to watch as a human machine touches down on a comet for the first time ever.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

17. 32 minutes and counting. Meanwhile, at the comet, Philae is just a couple of minutes from the

landing but we're delayed in seeing it by distance - 500,000,000km!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

18. ESA wishes it's baby good luck...

https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532555464752762880

[ChisolmTrailDem]

19. Lots of nervouse anticipation of people gathered around the console at Rosetta mission HQ! nt

[Lochloosa]

20. 15 MINUTES TO GO...

[ChisolmTrailDem]

21. Very exciting, Lochloosa! Good luck to Philae and ESA! nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

22. At this point, Philae has already touched down, we're just waiting for physics

to allow us to see it for ourselves!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

23. Nailbitingly nerve-wracking...

Dr Marco Langbroek...waiting!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

24. 1/2 million people watching as space exploration history is made! nt

[csziggy]

25. Big CHEER! Lots of happy people!

It must have made it!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

27. Yay! How so very exciting, csziggy! Soft landing. Analyzing Philae's orientation now! nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

26. SUCCESS! Philae is down! nt

[Warpy]

30. Hmmm, confirmation of touchdown to be

in another two hours according to their timetable.

I sincerely hope everything works as hoped for.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

35. They just confirmed Philae has landed on the comet and is talking to them at mission control! nt

[Warpy]

37. Great! This is such an enormous achievement

They've already told us the comet stinks out loud and purrs. The lander should be able to come up with a lot of amazing stuff as time goes on.

What I'm waiting for is the panoramic camera shots later today.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

38. The pics should be amazing, Warpy! This wasn't even the original intended comet. What

an achievement!

[shenmue]

28. We claim this comet in the name of Mars

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[ChisolmTrailDem]

32. ROFL, love it! nt

[kentauros]

53. Do you have a flag?

[True Blue Door]

61. There are serious proposed Mars flags.

Most use the colors red, green, and blue based on Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction trilogy symbolizing the terraformation process. The simplest is a tricolor:

[img][/img]

Concept art for future SpaceX rockets designed for human Mars missions often involves this flag painted on them. Mock Mars missions done for scientific research in the Arctic often fly this flag also.

[kentauros]

64. In that case, we CAN steal that comet!

[jen63]

29. I f***ing love science!!

Thanks for this!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

33. Me too, jen63, and you're very welcome! nt

[True Blue Door]

62. Yeah science!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

31. Rosetta control director (smiling): "We can be happy. We have confirmed the lander

is on the surface!"

[Bluenorthwest]

34. This is so exciting, this is the real big news for November 2014 right here.

So cool.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

36. Cool overflow! I have goosebumps. I can't imagine how exciting it must be to be a part

of making it happen.

Congratulations to all who share in this amazing success!

[uppityperson]

39. thanks for the updates, very exciting. Science and astronomical stuff is too cool

[ChisolmTrailDem]

41. You're very welcome, uppityperson, and thank you for following along! Yes, science and space

is still cool!

[gvstn]

40. Amazing achievement!

Truly amazing! I am so happy for all those who have worked on this project. They are thrilled and deserve every second of that wonderful feeling.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

42. Indeed, gvstn! nt

[Texasgal]

43. wow! This is sooo cool!

Thanks for the thread!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

44. Very cool, Texasgal! And you're very welcome! I'm sitting here watching CNN's coverage...Wow, our

media people are stupid squared!

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

59. I watched CNN, too. Pathetic.

Didn't cover the press conference. Instead. they chatted with each other.

They think their audience is as dumb as they are.

[True Blue Door]

65. For the most part, they are correct.

Anyone who would watch such idiots for any length of time is either also an idiot or a voyeur of idiocy.

They're a long, long, long way down from the days of providing informed coverage of space events.

[Skidmore]

45. Thanks for this. Unfortunately, I had to

go out for an appointment and to run errands so I missed the moment. I don't have a smart phone either. What a magnificent achievement! So exciting!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

47. My pleasure, Skidmore. It was an exciting moment and magnificent, indeed! nt

[Skidmore]

50. To think that we have essentially tanked our space program

all in the name of creating a private space tourist industry for the 1%. Doesn't that just irk you to no end?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

52. It does indeed, Skidmore. nt

[True Blue Door]

67. That's a horrible misunderstanding of what's happening.

The private spaceflight industry arose out of frustration with decades of political inaction in the public sector. It didn't cause political abandonment of NASA - it was a reaction to it, and apparently a productive one. SpaceX in particular is getting things done that should have been done in the '80s, and enabling NASA to get back on track in the process.

Moreover, air travel was for the 1% originally. So were cars. So were trains. So were personal computers. So were cellphones. That's where you have to start with new technologies. But the nature of technology is that it doesn't end there. "Trickle-down" is a lie everywhere other than in technology, but in technology it is real. The rich are early adopters, paying high unit costs for bespoke early versions of new technologies. Then manufacturability improves, volume increases, unit costs decline.

Just because sociopaths make a religion out of capitalism doesn't mean it's not actually a useful, rational tool when applied properly.

[muriel_volestrangler]

46. A note of caution - there's a problem with the anchors

Apparently the anchors didn’t deploy, so there’s a concern about the stability of the lander.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/12/rosetta-comet-landing-live-blog#block-54638e0ce4b04484e857945f

Controllers have confirmed that the probe made a soft, gentle landing — but that the anchors did not shoot as planned. They cannot say with 100% certainty that Philae has in fact landed on the comet and/or that the probe is safe and secure on the surface. There's still the possibility that the mission controllers will have to reshoot the harpoons to gain a firm foothold on the surface.

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

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) November 12, 2014

https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/532575061543485440

http://io9.com/esa-mission-controllers-we-are-on-the-comet-1657848284

[ChisolmTrailDem]

48. Thanks for the update and link, muriel_volestrangler. If that is the case, let's hope

gravity holds it down!

[muriel_volestrangler]

49. There are the ice screws as well, but they may depend on solid material

to grip against. Let's hope for the best.

[LeftInTX]

68. Awesome pics on the site right now

[ChisolmTrailDem]

51. Rosetta tweets @WilliamShatner

https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532568464947683329

ESA Rosetta MissionVerified account ‏@ESA_Rosetta

.@WilliamShatner touchdown confirmed for away team @philae2014, captain!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

54. FIRST DESCENT IMAGE as Philae approached the surface of comet from 3km...

:large

[ChisolmTrailDem]

55. Second descent image, just above surface:

:large

[ChisolmTrailDem]

56. Mission engineers viewing latest images from Philae...

[True Blue Door]

57. An appropriate soundtrack:

Also, the ESA website has a brilliant app showing Rosetta's journey in an animated orbital diagram (you can zoom in and out with your scroll wheel):

http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/

[ChisolmTrailDem]

58. From one Smashing Pumpkins fan to another: Indeed, True Blue Door. Love that video! nt

[True Blue Door]

60. Several SP songs work great as space soundtracks.

There's the wistful childhood dream of space:

The romantic, Jules Verne vision (Tonight, Tonight).

The ethereal, cosmic perspective (audio only):

There are tons of others I think would work great as science fiction soundtracks. They've been so badly abused by Hollywood though, used in the shittiest of movies.

[tomm2thumbs]

63. Super cool - glad you posted the links - and thanks again!

[Octafish]

66. Way to go, NASA!

Er. ESA! Way to go, ESA! Excellence 10 years in the making!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

69. Hi Octafish! I remember back when this thing launched and feeling excited and anticipating

way back then, which seems like a mere weeks ago. Can't believe how fast this time has come and so exciting and worth the wait.

I can only hope that NASA's Constellation and Orion missions are realized in full. ESA is going to kick our asses just before they head to Mars and put people on that planet. We, I'm afraid, will once again be the outsiders looking in as more than half our population and leaders do not believe in science and are taking us backward at the behest and direction and manipulation of the 1%.

[True Blue Door]

73. ESA is involved in NASA's Orion program.

They're building the service module based on the ATV cargo resupply capsule.

And they have no plans - or budgets - to "kick our asses" in space. This is a superb achievement, but their exploration program is modest compared to what we have going on.

This coming February a NASA probe arrives at Ceres; then in July, another NASA probe flies by Pluto; then the July after that, another NASA probe enters polar orbit around Jupiter. We currently have four operational probes on or around Mars, one orbiting the Moon, one orbiting Saturn, one orbiting Mercury, and a bunch of solar observatories.

Don't lose perspective.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

74. Well I'm sure they're going to get a lot more support for their efforts after today. I am

admittedly behind on what NASA is currently doing. I've just been too busy to do anything other than work and go outside when I'm not working. But I try to catch up somehow.

[True Blue Door]

75. Hopefully so. We can hope that this, the Chinese lunar probes, and the Indian Mars probe

will invigorate public support in their respective constituencies and create demand for more ambitious missions.

It can only mean increased cadence of exploration - and a more regular stream of awesome pictures.

A Europa Clipper probe is also being considered by NASA, and has generated a lot of Congressional support.

[Octafish]

77. Hiya, ChisolmTrailDem! Time flies!

We're less than a year away from Pluto, my Friend!

JFK saw that civilian-led, manned space exploration was how we could save the nation and planet, give all looking for a good job something worth doing without having to resort to violence, and be pretty damn neat way to invest in humanity and our future. Instead, we have "Money trumps peace" from a cretin for a credo.

[LanternWaste]

80. It's important to the dullard that imaginary borders trumps science.

It's important to the dullards among us that imaginary borders trumps science.

[Octafish]

93. They wonder like how it's possible why the dark side of the moon isn't dark.

The view from Farside.

[LeftInTX]

70. Thanks so much for the thread!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

72. You're very welcome, LeftInTX! I live for stuff like this! nt

[MerryBlooms]

71. Comet 67/P Has a Welcome Song for Rosetta And Philae

Scroll down a little and play the audio- very cool!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/comet-has-welcome-song-rosetta-and-philae-180953303/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=11122014&utm_content=smartnewsphilae

[Sunlei]

76. extraordinary success! Great public updates from ESA, thanks for sharing with the world!

[freshwest]

78. Thank You for posting. Went to many other videos there. So inspiring, with many about Earth, too.

This is where humanity's focus should be, not on the craziness and ignorance we hear so much about. Good way to start my day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

79. Rosetta probe has bounced away from landing site and lost contact, admit scientists

"It's complicated to land on a comet. It's also complicated to understand what has happened during the landing. What we know is that we touched down and we landed on the comet. We had a very clear signal and we also recieved data from the lander. That is the very good news

"The not so good news is that the anchoring harpoons did not fire. So the lander is not anchored to the surface. Did we just land in a soft-sand box and everything is fine? Or is there something else happening. We still do not fully understand what has happened.

"Some of the data indicated that the lander may have lifted off again. It touched down and was rebouncing. So maybe today, we didn't just land once, we landed twice."
...
“Our big concern is at the moment is whether we are standing stably. We are considering if we need to retry shooting the anchors. said a spokesman for the Philae lander in Cologne.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/11227176/Rosetta-probe-has-bounced-away-from-landing-site-and-lost-contact-admit-scientists.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

81. Landing was so good, they did it 3 times

@Philae_ROMAP magnetic field analysis revealed 3 landings at 15:33, 17:26 and 17:33 UTC

https://twitter.com/Philae_ROMAP/status/532676580787896320

But then Dr Ulamec delivered the "bad news". He said telemetry from the craft suggested it might have drifted off the surface after landing and started to turn. This subsequently came to an end, which the German Space Agency official interpreted as a possible "second landing" on Comet 67P.

In fact, even later data would indicate that the Philae robot may have bounced twice, taking a full two hours to come to a rest.

This bouncing was always a possibility, but had been made more likely by the failure of the harpoons to deploy, and the failure of a thruster intended to push the robot into the surface.
...
The mission team must decide if the harpoons can now be commanded to fire without unsteadying the robot still further.

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

[awoke_in_2003]

82. at least we didn't bomb it

like we did the moon

[ChisolmTrailDem]

83. The relative size of Comet C-G 67/P: Some perspective

[dumbcat]

90. Great pic!

That really does give some perspective. Much better than just numbers.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

91. Can you imagine that thing slamming into Earth at 41,000mph? We would get to

see what the dinosaurs saw.

[muriel_volestrangler]

84. 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.
...
Engineers say it may have bounced hundreds of metres back off the surface after first touching down.
...
But there is still concern about the longer-term stability of Philae because it is not properly anchored - the harpoons that should have hooked it into the surface did not fire on contact. Neither did its feet screws get any purchase.
...
He also has worries about drilling into the comet because this too could affect the stability of the lander.

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

Dr Matt Taylor, project scientist on the Rosetta mission, describes the bumpy landing (including one nearly two-hour bounce) as “three landings for the price of one”.

The descent was due on to a particular point on the surface of the comet; the bounce would have made it go up and then the comet’s rotating underneath.

So we know, if we are looking at an image, that most likely the lander is somewhere on the right and now we are trying to refine that to really start focusing on the orbiter images to see where it is.

In the next few hours we hope to be piecing the data we get on the lander to add this all together. We know it’s stable and sitting in place - that’s about as stable as we could wish for at the moment - and the next few hours should give us a bit more illumination on what the situation is there.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/13/rosetta-mission-philae-lander-live-coverage-comet-esa#block-54648a6ee4b0f33efafdaad2

Lander project manager Stephan Ulamec has told the BBC’s Jonathan Amos:

We are still not anchored. We are sitting with the weight of the lander somehow on the comet. We are pretty sure where we landed the first time, and then we made quite a leap. Some people say it is in the order of 1 km high. And then we had another small leap, and now we are sitting there, and transmitting, and everything else is something we have to start understanding and keep interpreting.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2014/nov/13/rosetta-mission-philae-lander-live-coverage-comet-esa#block-54648bebe4b0f33efafdaad4

[muriel_volestrangler]

85. First picture after (final) landing

Welcome to a comet! First CIVA images confirm @Philae2014 is on surface of #67P! http://ow.ly/EczwI #CometLanding

https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta/status/532833867817033728

[Sunlei]

87. can't wait until they start testing!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

89. Thank you, muriel_volestrangler, for your continued reporting in this thread. After speding nearly

24 hours on this thread and live-blogging the event, I had to get some sleep and last night held pre-arranged activities elsewhere. So, I appreciate that you took up the baton.

That image is amazing. It doesn't look like what I expected it to look. I would seem that Philae has landed (finally) somewhere other than where it was thought (and meant) to have landed. This actually looks like it came to rest somewhere on the inside of one of the two nodes of the comet or perhaps very close to the edge so that it can see the valley between to the two nodes.

Amazing!

[Warren DeMontague]

86. K&R

Awesome.

[Sunlei]

88. lots of flickr photos here from ESA

https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/sets/72157638315605535/

[Odin2005]

92. It looks just like the dirty snowball I imagined!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

94. Me too! Not too sure about this one though...

[Odin2005]

95. LOL!