This is very cool.
I thought the "landing" had failed
This is very cool. -- Drew |
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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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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? -- Drew |
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A presentation on the landing calculations.
http://www.simpack.com/fileadmin/simpack/doc/usermeeting04/um04_maxplanck_hilch.pdf (33 page .pdf). See p.16. Simulated Comet gravity = 5E-4 m/s^2 (vs 9.8 m/s^2 for Earth). It's tiny. They were planning on using a harpoon to stay tied down, but the comet was harder than they expected (or something). HTH. Cheers, Scott. |
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The harpoons and the landing thruster did not fire.
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Ah. Well, that would cause problems. :-( Thanks!
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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 |