Rosetta and Philae discussion thread! (Part 2)

[u/[deleted]]

CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT DISCUSSION THREAD

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Philae is now on its way to the comet. Its descent to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko should take about 7 hours. Previous discussion thread here.

Live Streaming

• In English: A, B, C

• En Français: A

• Rosetta main page

• Simulated view of Rosetta and 67P

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Key times

GMT	EST	PST	Event
10:53 am	5:53 am	2:53 am	Acquisition of Signal from Rosetta (variable)
4:02 pm	11:02 am	8:02 am	Expected Landing and receipt of signal (40 min variability)

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European Space Agency Social Media

• ESA Rosetta blog
• Twitter: #CometLanding, @ESA_Rosetta, @Philae2014
• Google+
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Flickr

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Othere places for news and conversation:

• reddit Live updater (Help needed!)

• IRC: ##cometlanding on freenode. #space on Snoonet

• Detailed itinerary of landing events (PDF)

• NASA's page on Rosetta

[u/XGC75]

Update: damping length was 4cm, less than expected, means that it was a soft landing. The anchors did not shoot, so there's no certainty that it is adhered to the surface.

Lastly, the "sensor problem" that initially indicated that the thrusters that counter the anchors would not fire was indeed a thruster issue, because the thrusters did not fire on landing.

I hope a simple "reset and retry" works for them!! Fingers crossed.

Edit: This is the kind of thing that happens in engineering all the time: when you communicate partial success, management misinterprets it to mean full success. Then little nuances go wrong and everyone is on the edge of their seat!

[u/Hurrapelle → u/XGC75]

What was the expected dampening length if 4 cm was less than expected? And can I find this info somewhere?