Rosetta probe Philae just landed on Comet 67P

[Strychnine]

Launched 10 years ago.

Moving 135,000 km/h 310 million miles from Earth - confirmation of successful touchdown took 30 minutes to reach Earth (happened about 45 sec ago)

Once the probe was released from Rosetta it was on its own with no ability to steer.

[trailerparksuperstar]

The Science Channel is doing a "television coverage" of this tonight @8pm

[Forever_frost]

I love crap like this. That is amazing

[Strychnine]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/12/363492519/comet-landing-european-craft-due-to-make-contact-today

Comet Landing: European Craft Reaches Target, Anchors Itself

Hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, a man-made object was flung at a comet Wednesday — next, it'll try to stick to the rock as it hurtles through space.

It's taken 10 years for the Philae lander to reach a point where it could be sent toward Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Now the European Space Agency says it has received a signal from the lander as it heads toward its rendezvous with the comet.

The news came after the agency endured tense hours of doubt following the lander's separation from the Rosetta spacecraft.

Now the ESA is awaiting a message from the lander that will determine whether it landed safely – or suffered a calamity. If all goes well, the lander will beam images back to Earth from 67P around 11 a.m. ET.

We'll update this post with developments from space. You can also follow the news at the ESA's Rosetta page, and at NASA TV, starting at 9 a.m. ET.

It's also being monitored by space veterans.

Update at 10:15 a.m. ET: New Images, And 'A Boot'

"Everything looks really, really good," says Stephan Ulamec, Philae program manager at DLR in a progress report.

The ESA has released new images from the area around the comet, including one shot of Philae breaking away from the Rosetta craft and heading toward 67P.

Another image shows the lander from the view of its parent spacecraft.

The two scientists who discovered the comet 45 years ago — Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko – are in the unique position today of watching humanity's attempt to land on it.

The two scientists are part of an event hosted by the ESA that's equal parts news conference and viewing party.

When Gerasimenko was asked the tongue-in-cheek question of how she likes the comet that she and her colleague spotted decades ago, she responded by saying, "I like the form very much – it reminds me of a boot."

Our original post continues:

Comet 67P has several surprising qualities. First of all, it smells really bad.

"It stinks," researcher Kathrin Altwegg told NPR's Geoff Brumfiel last month.

That's because of a mixture of ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, formaldehyde and methanol.

The comet also emits "a mysterious song," according to the ESA blog.

"The comet seems to be emitting a 'song' in the form of oscillations in the magnetic field in the comet's environment," the ESA says. "It is being sung at 40-50 millihertz, far below human hearing, which typically picks up sound between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. To make the music audible to the human ear, the frequencies have been increased by a factor of about 10,000."

As Geoff reports, scientists here on Earth see Philae, which is about the size of a refrigerator, as "our remote hands." The lander will take many readings from the comet's surface, in addition to drilling into it.

But before any tests can occur, Geoff notes, the comet's rocky and uneven surface could make the landing very tricky — and that's why the lander has harpoons.

"Moments after its feet touch down, the harpoons will fire," Geoff says, "along with some thrusters to keep the lander grounded. Then screws in the feet will try to get a grip."

Here's how the ESA says things should work if all goes well, with music by Vangelis (we'll warn you: the music is dramatic).

[Strychnine]

NOV 12. A raw image of the Rosetta spacecraft, taken by the Philae lander moments after separation.



Nov. 6 Comet 67P/C-G is shaped like a duck, with two lobes separated by a neck. In this image, the comet’s head is at center, with the neck in shadow and body in the background. Philae’s intended landing site, named Agilkia, is a relatively flat area on the comet’s head.



RELEASING THE LANDER Rosetta angled toward the comet and released the Philae lander on Wednesday at 4:03 a.m. Eastern time. Philae will take about seven hours to descend onto the comet’s head.



Nov. 4 The comet’s head is in the foreground and the body is in the background. Rosetta was about 20 miles above the comet’s surface when it took the four photographs used to make this panorama.



Oct. 28 The comet’s neck, seen from 5 miles above the surface. Rubble appears to have fallen from some of the overhanging ledges and small cracks visible on some of the ledges at center left might lead to future landslides.



Oct. 7 Comet 67P/C-G is framed by one of Rosetta’s solar wings, which is 46 feet long. A stream of gas and dust extends from an active area of the comet’s neck, about 10 miles away.



RELATIVE SIZE Rosetta’s wingspan of 105 feet is barely visible in this illustration of relative size. The comet and spacecraft are shown separated by about 6 miles.



A COMET OVER BROADWAY The body of Comet 67P/C-G is about as long as Central Park.

[diablo rojo]

The sheer audacity of what they've accomplished is amazing. They threw an object out into space, had it use the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies to help it meander through space, avoid all manner of obstacles (large and small), and land on a rock the size of Central Park. That is simply amazing.

[Scott Mc]

Greatness! I can't wait for the images and info that is released.

[KBScobravert]

Okay, this gives me a slight science chub.

[Sean88gt]

The sheer audacity of what they've accomplished is amazing. They threw an object out into space, had it use the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies to help it meander through space, avoid all manner of obstacles (large and small), and land on a rock the size of Central Park. That is simply amazing.

It's mind blowing. I can't imagine the brain-trust that was able to conjure up the project details.

[Denny]

Its not like driving a Choo Choo train, but still pretty amazing.

[Strychnine]

Apparently the harpoons didn't fire

A paraphrasing of what the ESA scientist just said:

We've seen a touchdown signal... We saw that the damping length was 4cm, much less than we expected, indicating the landing was very gentle. The tank opening failure was indeed a failure – it did not ignite. The anchors did not shoot which is causing us some concerns at the moment. Without that we cannot 100 percent state that we are fixed on the comet.

At the moment Rosetta is moving a little bit, taking images. But our big concern at the moment is confirming that we're standing stably on the comet and we're considering whether we need to retry shooting the anchors.

He also says that Philae might be moving around on the comet's surface, perhaps even sliding, but it is unlikely to bounce off, which is some relief. "Frankly, given it has been on the surface for a few hours now, I would be very surprised," he says.

Pic from just before touchdown:

[46Tbird]

This is such an amazing accomplishment.

I was a serious space nut as a kid. I even rep'd a Halley's Comet shirt quite a bit in '86; I'll have to dig out some photos. And I'm looking forward to seeing it again in '61.

[idrivea4banger]

Armageddon 2.

[Strychnine]

Sounds like they're not quite out of the woods yet.

two harpoons did NOT fire. Lander fixed by icescrews only, problematic for chemical investigations that require drilling SD2.

The comms link between Philae ESA is intermittent instead of steady. Analysis ongoing

"We still do not fully understand what has happened," says Stephan Ulamec. "We had fluctuations in the radio link. We were always receiving data from the lander."

But some of these data indicated we may have bounced off again, he says.

Fluctuations in the solar generator that followed may indicate that the lander lifted off the surface momentarily.

"Maybe today we didn't just land once, we landed twice,"

13:42 Philae Has Landed! Now The Work Begins

Whew! We can all breathe a sigh of relief. Rosetta’s Philae lander is sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and it’s beamed some data (though spottily) back to mothership Rosetta. Now, the real work begins.

Philae’s first order of business, after landing not once but twice, will be to conduct one final maneuver tonight (the details aren’t exactly clear). During this time, ground control will lose radio contact with Philae, but they hope to reestablish their communications connection in the morning. There will be another media briefing at 8 a.m. ET with, hopefully, more information.

After that, Philae will get to work sending humanity the first panoramic images of the comet’s surface using six onboard cameras. We’ll post them here when they arrive. Within the first 2.5 days, the lander will take gas measurements, analyze surface and subsurface properties of the comet, snap close-up photos of the surface, and measure magnetic fields.

The lander has just 64 hours of battery time for its initial science phase. After that it’ll have to wait for sunlight to charge its secondary batteries, courtesy of its onboard solar panels. If solar power is available, Philae will execute its “long-term” science phase, which should allow for an hour’s worth of observation every couple of days. The long-term phase could last until March of 2015.

The minimum expectation is for Philae to conduct ground operations for a week, but the craft could continue operations for many months, according to the European Space Agency. Meanwhile, the Rosetta space probe will continue to orbit 67P recording data and samples from the comet's coma and tail.

In August 2015, Rosetta and Philae will hang on for the ride as 67P reaches its nearest proximity to the Sun, which should give humanity an up-close look at how comets behave when they’re actively shedding dust and ice.

In December 2015, the mission to 67P officially concludes. Fittingly, the comet will once again pass near Earth that month — more than 4,000 days after it all began.

[no4njnk]

First image on the comet...