What is the deal? Is it just me, or is Rosetta really hot?

NEW Update:  The Philae lander has depleted its batteries and gone into idle mode, probably drawing the surface-based study of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to a close.

Philae made contact with the Rosetta spacecraft late on November 15 during a scheduled communications link. The probe relayed all the expected science data, including those from instruments designed to identify organic molecules, analyze gases and sample the comet’s dirt. But the batteries quickly depleted and all instruments and most systems on the lander shut down.

Solar panels were meant to maintain the lander’s power, but Philae’s unexpected bounces during landing put it in the shadows of a cliff, providing much less sunlight than expected. Mission scientists sent commands to Philae to lift the lander and rotate its main body in hopes of moving the solar panels to a position where they would receive more light. “However, given the low recharge current available from the solar cells, it is considered unlikely that contact with Philae will be established in the coming days,” ESA reported on its Rosetta blog.

The Rosetta spacecraft will continue to travel with and study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it nears the sun, reaching its closest point in August. And mission scientists remain optimistic that at some point in the journey Philae’s solar panels will receive enough sunlight to bring the lander out of hibernation.

Background:



European Space Agency scientists and executives high-fived and hugged each other when the landing was confirmed. Spacecraft have crashed into comets before, but this is the first soft, or controlled landing, in history.

ESA, we have a problem...

After leaving the mother ship Rosetta and descending, Philae may have bounced, rather

than gently settled, on the surface of the comet, ESA scientists said at a news conference. Comet 67P has a very weak gravity, so anchoring harpoons were designed to shoot into the comet to fix the spacecraft to the surface. They failed to fire and Philae is not firmly secure, ESA said. How Philae space probe docked on comet Rosetta team celebrates landing Rosetta: The comet chaser 

Rosetta's Stone...

Comet landing an 'engineering miracle'


During the landing, the lander snaps a goodbye picture of Rosetta "So maybe we didn't land once -- we landed twice," Philae lander manager Stephan Ulamec said. "Did we land in a soft sandbox or is there something else happening? We don't fully understand what happened."  

What happened was that Philae bounced about 1 km high and 1 km wide on a rock barely 2 km large. Had it bounced only a little bit more, then it would have missed this side of the comet and probably crashed head first into some other part. Philae bounced  off very slowly at about 1/5 walking speed. Had it been twice as fast, then it would have left the comet entirely and it would be lost in space by now.

"Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions...

• What were the conditions like at its infancy and how did it evolve? 
• What role did comets play in this evolution? 
• How do comets work?"

Rosetta took off from Earth 10 years ago carrying Philae and traveled 6.4 billion miles before arriving in early August at the comet. The Philae lander separated from the orbiting Rosetta around 3:30 a.m. ET Wednesday and landed on the comet seven hours later.

ESA lander system engineer Laurence O'Rourke said that the orbiter Rosetta had to be in the right position to allow the lander craft, which had no thrusters, to "free fall" on the correct trajectory so it landed on the comet. 

The lander weighs about 220 pounds and is the size of a domestic washing machine. The target comet is only four kilometers, or 2.5 miles, in diameter.

Shortly after landing was confirmed, the probe tweeted: "Touchdown! My new address: 67P!" Later, it tweeted again: "I'm on the surface but my harpoons did not fire."

What can we learn from comet landing?

Named after Rosetta Stones

The spaceship is named after the Rosetta Stone, an inscribed piece of volcanic rock found in Egypt in 1799 that allowed scientists to decipher hieroglyphics and thus understand the ancient Egyptian culture, ESA said. The lander is named after an island in the Nile River where an obelisk was found that helped decipher the Rosetta Stone, ESA said.

Led by ESA with a consortium of partners including NASA, scientists on the Rosetta comet-chasing mission hope to learn more about the composition of comets and how they interact with the solar wind: high energy particles blasted into space by the sun.

The comet is currently 500 million kilometers (310 million miles) from Earth and pictures from the Rosetta mission to track it on its orbit around the sun have amazed scientists.

What was Rosetta to discover?

• Philae also carries a drill that can drive 20 centimeters (8 inches) into the comet and deliver material to its onboard ovens for testing.
• Scientists are already pleased with progress of the mission, and they're wowed by what's already been accomplished.
• ESA project scientist Matt Taylor said: "The orbiter will remain alongside the comet for over a year, watching it grow in activity as it approaches the sun, getting to within 180 million kilometers (112 million miles) in summer next year, when the comet will be expelling hundreds of kilograms of material every second."
• "It's got an awesome profile -- the adventure of the decade-long journey necessary to capture its prey, flying past the Earth, Mars and two asteroids on the way," NASA's chief scientist, Ellen Stofan, said, "No one has ever gotten data like Rosetta has gotten. No one has ever been able to land on a comet the way Philae just did."

Source(s):

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10580720/Hibernating-spacecraft-Rosetta-to-awaken-for-comet-chase.html
• http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/12/world/comet-landing-countdown/index.html
• http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/07/rosetta-and-philae-landing-timeline/

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

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