Rosetta Lands

Post Reply New Topic

I guess this is what happens when you perseverate on something too much! URL Below

Web Page Name

Indeed. I was watching the live stream of HQ whilst I worked.

I was expecting more a response here TBH. Where is everyone?

Anyway, possibility that the harpoons may mot have deployed, by may still be held tot he surface. Transmission is a little intermittent, so they are still receiving data.

The calculations had to be so precise. The efforts of a nameless dedicated few who gave it their all. The satisfaction they must feel. It's what we live for; to pass on our efforts, large and small, to subsequent generations. WTG Rosetta people, whoever you are

Well yes, on the other hand they had to make some educated guesses and figure out an adaptive design that would work under a variety of scenarios.

Engineering and computing need to work in a dynamical situation with lot of unknowns, to be initiated in a adaptable way and in a range of time frames, to make the best use of the life cycle of the project.

Still one problem can bring it all to a halt. You can but try.

Today I read about some of those problems that the team had to overcome.

Did you hear that the thrusters did not work to slow the lander and that it bounced off the comet upon landing and floated for 2 hours before touching down in the shadow of a cliff, where it will not get sufficient sunlight, limiting experiments. But there is hope for sunlight as the comet and lander continue their voyage around the sun.

And since the anchoring harpoons didn't fire, drilling into the surface is out. Weighing only .04 ounce in the comet's low gravity, sticking a drillbit in the ground could blast the whole washing machine baCK UP INTO SPACE.

I've seen one photo taken by the lander from the surface. It is a sunny spot seen from the shade where the lander sits. It looks like tortured hard rock to me.

They hit a bullet with a bullet with a carom shot off of mars, and all this after a ten year flight!! This is astounding technology. Three cheers for ESA and Isaac Newton who made this technological feat possible!

ruveyn

Pity it bounced and is in shade. Just hope the downloaded enough data to get their teeth in.

Hopefully when the comet gets closer to the sun it may charge enough so they could use either the drill or anchors to bounce out of the crevasse it is in.

As least the satellite. is getting data.

The most amazing thing to me is that they (somewhat) succeeded using only timed commands.. with a two hour delay for signal travel they could only send the instruction set and hope it worked.