Post #402,504
6/14/15 9:11:10 AM
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It's alive, it's alive!
Philae comet lander wakes up. The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth.
Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November.
It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat.
The comet has since moved nearer to the sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos.
An account linked to the probe tweeted the message, "Hello Earth! Can you hear me?" Woot! Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #402,506
6/14/15 9:38:42 AM
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I thought the "landing" had failed
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Post #402,511
6/14/15 10:36:18 AM
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Re: I thought the "landing" had failed
The landing did fail in a way. It bounced around and thought to have finally rested in some shaded ravine. So, the solar panels couldn't do much after the batteries ran low.
They're still to pin down its exact location. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #402,516
6/14/15 12:24:08 PM
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Anyone seen a calculation of spin rate to gravity?
The gravity for that rock is pretty small. It wouldn't take much spin for centripetal force to throw off anything that isn't nailed down. Does anyone know how fast it's spinning, and how much margin for error there is before things fly apart?
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Post #402,523
6/14/15 12:42:31 PM
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A presentation on the landing calculations.
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Post #402,547
6/15/15 7:46:27 AM
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The harpoons and the landing thruster did not fire.
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Post #402,549
6/15/15 8:34:00 AM
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Ah. Well, that would cause problems. :-( Thanks!
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Post #402,571
6/15/15 5:19:20 PM
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That's a whale of a problem. :)
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #402,545
6/15/15 7:09:01 AM
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Whatever the designers clearly finessed across the overall package..
Isn't it Nice that they picked a battery chemistry which could bear 'deep discharge' (maybe unto 0.000x V.. ?) for a prolonged period. Presumably too, any built-in "heaters" simultaneously lost their energy source: what else could one conclude re that solar isolation? Bizarre things happen at these low Kelvin temps, when one thinks of those semiconductor junctions trying to function ... as a few mWatta ... trickle in.
So even this minimal self-recovery earns a passel of kudos. No?
Clever Lads. Whether or not it makes it back to full functionality, at all.
Science! ..the last refuge for those who comprehend why Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels cha. cha. cha.
;^>
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