First ever Comet Landing: Live Feed

I agree with you about the moon...about as useful as a dusty abandoned attic nobody can get to.

Al Murray- 'Britain never put a man on the moon. The moon was never going to be part of the British Empire. There's no one to give it back to once we've done with it is there.
There's no point going to the moon putting in a railway, trial by jury and parliamentary democracy, there's no bastard living there. There's nothing to be gained by the way of hot and spicy food or Olympic quality athletes. Its a waste of a journey.
Why would the British, the very people who invented gravity want to go where there isn't any? The moon should be left to its own business of tides, werewolves and periods. If anyone can tell me the actual difference between those last two let me know later."

Well the lander has gone to sleep- out of power. It seems to have ended up under a cliff face.
But they got it drilling, and they got all the data sent back before it ran out of juice so thats good. An extraordinary achievement.

'Stephan Ulamec, lander manager, said: "Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence.
"This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered."

Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser to the ESA, told BBC Radio 5 live they were "hugely happy".
He said: "All of the science instruments on board have done all the work they were supposed to do so we have huge amounts of data back on the ground now, which is really exciting.
"Philae could come back later as we move closer to the sun, and we get more light onto the solar panels up against the cliff we're at here in the shadows."
In the latest tranche of data are the results from the drilling attempt made earlier in the day.- BBC

It is pretty amazing what can be done now, & how far along we've come technically wise. The results should be interesting ?

The full results will be reported at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco next month....and it just so happens, I will be there! I predict standing room audiences. I plan to camp out early for a seat.

Nice one Halfy. That will be amazing to be at and hear history in the making.

Hi res pictures taken form the support vehicle of the landers first touchdown (before it bounced 1kim away into the unknown!)

they said it would wake up once it got nearer the sun and it recharged its batteries.

If it gets near the sun for long enough, they still havent worked out where it is yet.

It's not where it is so much as where the shadow will be. I'm thinking if they knew the orientation of the thing then from the time of that first picture and the shadow angles they could work out how the shadow will change. Don't know if they have enough information to do that since they still need to know which way it's looking.

From what I can tell they are trying to get the mother ship to locate it by just taking lots of pictures and hoping they can spot it.
I am somewhat surprised that no one thought to put a location beacon on it that could have signalled before the power gave out. Something to add for next time perhaps.

They need more than location, which they know in general. They also need to know about the shadows cast by surrounding boulders.

Yeah but if they can work out where it is then they might be able to photograph where it is and see the surrounds and then work out where on the rotation it is and therefore how much light its likely to get per day, if any.

There's life Jim, but not as we know it! (maybe)

'The Philae lander has detected organic molecules on the surface of its comet, scientists have confirmed.
The compounds were picked up by a German-built instrument designed to "sniff" the comet's thin atmosphere.
Dr Fred Goessmann, principal investigator on the Cosac instrument, which made the organics detection, confirmed the find to BBC News. But he added that the team was still trying to interpret the results.
It has not been disclosed which molecules have been found, or how complex they are.
But the results are likely to provide insights into the possible role of comets in contributing some of the chemical building blocks to the primordial mix from which life evolved on the early Earth.'- BBC

no molecules are as sniffable as your kilt, why go in space?

Watched a show last night which detailed the whole mission history.  Turns out they had planned to go to another comet, but then were delayed due to launch rocket problems.  The current one is further away than originally planned, so to save the batteries after putting the satellite into interplanetary trajectory they had to put it into hibernation...for 3.5 years!  When it woke up it first had to search the sky to lock into it's internal sky map in order to orient the transmitter, then it finally sent the signal.  Kind of had to fall in love with the pesky little critter waking up in the middle of nowhere after years of hurtling through space, dutifully figuring out where it was and which way it was pointing, and sending out a plaintive "I'm still alive!"

Another landmark was re-locating the comet, which of course was dormant so hard to find.  Another use of the sky map, then before and after comparisons to see what had moved.

Getting it into orbit around the damn thing took another 3 months.

All we saw was the final landing.

Kind of funny how many times over the last decade the same people got together at wide intervals in the control room, then after hours or days of tense waiting, would jump up and hug and kiss everyone each time they found their scrappy little vehicle had pulled through yet again.

Love stuff like this. Remember being glued to the tv when the rover was landing on Mars.

each time they found their scrappy little vehicle had pulled through yet again- Halfy


Its incredibly hard not to humanise the little bugger as plucky, determined, dogged ect, but of course really all it was is well built and programmed.

Yep, same with Spirit and Opportunity, which just kept plugging away far past their design period.

Do you know when the next window of opportunity is to see if its powered up any?

Last update on the homepage shows it's still truckin'.

http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/home/