Space Stuff and the Such.

[w00dsy]

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[norbs]

This is pretty fucking awesome.

[Exar Kun]

w00t! So happy for them that it made it. What a massive achievement.

[smithcorp]

What an astounding project. I wonder how many people around the world amazed by this achievement remain suspicious of climate scientists?

[durbster]

The next few hours will be nervy. We know the lander had a pretty soft landing so the surface was quite soft (like frozen soup is a phrase I heard), but contact was intermittent and they know the lander was moving about and possibly sliding.

The harpoons intended to fire into the surface to act as anchors failed to fire, so it's just relying on the ice screws to hold it on. They have to decide whether to try the harpoons again or leave it as it is. If they fire them into the wrong type of surface it could push it off the comet and out into space.

From what I can tell, they're far more concerned about getting a reliable connection than physically securing the lander. All the sensors seem to be working so they'd rather grab as much data as they can now it's on there than risk knockig it off and having no data at all.

It was bloody tense watching the live feed and waiting for a response from Philae to say it had landed

[DexterPunk]

Amazing stuff!! I wish I'd seen it live.

[smithcorp]

The next few hours will be nervy. We know the lander had a pretty soft landing so the surface was quite soft (like frozen soup is a phrase I heard), but contact was intermittent and they know the lander was moving about and possibly sliding.

The harpoons intended to fire into the surface to act as anchors failed to fire, so it's just relying on the ice screws to hold it on. They have to decide whether to try the harpoons again or leave it as it is. If they fire them into the wrong type of surface it could push it off the comet and out into space.

From what I can tell, they're far more concerned about getting a reliable connection than physically securing the lander. All the sensors seem to be working so they'd rather grab as much data as they can now it's on there than risk knockig it off and having no data at all.

It was bloody tense watching the live feed and waiting for a response from Philae to say it had landed

Yes, they've said they won't be too concerned if the lander failed, as they got the data they needed from the probe. So cool to be alive when this is happening (I was 8 when the moon landing occurred). It takes 28 minutes for the telemetry to get from the comet to Earth!

[Duke]

It's friggin mind-boggingly awesome but it's a shame the general public isn't as captivated by it as they were with the moon landing(s) & early shuttle missions.
It's only geeks like us that have the interest these days.

[durbster]

Yeah I'm not sure how much interest there has been. It's made the TV news here which is great and #CometLanding has been trending on Twitter since yesterday and still was this morning when I looked.

[Big Kev]

New picture from the surface

[durbster]

Sounds very likely it's on its side going from the Twitter feed, so I think that's the sky* to the left.

They reckon it hit the comet and bounced hundreds of metres in the **air. Two hours later it came back down and settled somewhere. Because all the securing mechanisms failed it was pure luck that it got wedged somewhere.

*err... is it still a sky if there's no atmosphere?
**err... can we call it air if there's no air?

[wobblysauce]

The back and forth chatter has made it accessible for the masses.

[Big Kev]

After a historic but awkward comet landing, the robot probe Philae is now stable and sending pictures - but there are concerns about its battery life.

After two bounces, the first one about 1km back out into space, the lander settled in the shadow of a cliff, 1km from its target site.

It may be problematic to get enough sunlight to charge its batteries.

The probe set off from Rosetta with 60-plus hours of battery life, and will need at some point to recharge using its solar panels.

But early reports indicate that in its present position, the robot is receiving only one-and-a-half hours of sunlight during every 12-hour rotation of the comet.

This will not be enough to sustain operations.

As a consequence, controllers here are discussing using one of Philae's deployable instruments to try to launch the probe upwards and away to a better location. But this would be a last-resort option.

[smithcorp]

A 2-hour bounce. Astounding.

[w00dsy]

How did it get back to the comet after it bounced? Is the comet big enough to have enough gravity to pull it back?

[smithcorp]

Yes, though weak enough that the bounces were so long. It's the comet's gravity that is helping to hold the probe in orbit around it.

[Duke]

Apparently the comet has 1/100,000 of earth's gravity making the probe weigh only 1 gram :O

[richo]

Crazy stuff its sort of like landing a bullet on a bullet it amazes how its even possible.]

[wobblysauce]

[J.D.]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-05/n ... es/5945574" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[wobblysauce]

The orbiters and the launch vehicle
http://www.buran.su/buranvssts-comparison.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[wobblysauce]

[Big Kev]

Those wheels are taking a real battering.
Always reminds me of Wall-E when I see pics of the mars curiosity rover. It's just a little car 200 million km away driving around with no one else there.

[durbster]

Yeah, I find it a little heartbreaking when I see the big fella out there working his arse off.

I don't quite understand how the wheels are so battered. I know it's constantly crawling over rocks but it's hardly zipping about at high speed and jumping off things (as far as we know). Maybe I'm thinking it's lighter than it is.

Nevertheless, the whole concept of it still blows my tiny mind.

[wobblysauce]

And some phones in space...
[youtube] [/youtube]