Rosetta - Philae landing on Comet 67P

And Mike, you and your damn thrusters concern made the suspense even more more unbearable!

I wonder if they did have it programmed to fire and if they did, did it fire or fail but philae landed without it anyway? Guess we'll find out later.

I wonder if they did have it programmed to fire and if they did

Everything was automated, so, if they could fire, they would have done. I suspect we will find out in due course.

Sorry I made it more tense for you! Just reporting on events!!

OK, so the thruster didn't fire. And the anchors haven't deployed either... so they can't confirm that they are secure on the comet.

They may have to re-fire the anchors.

Still, at least we got there. How long we stay there is the next question!

Science data is being received.

Chris Lintott reporting that everyone he has spoken to believes that the ice screws are in. Very good news if true.

Harpoons definitely didn't fire.

Gosh, the harpoons didnt fire either. Whatever they decide to do next, eg refire them etc, it could potentially rebound it off...

...the tension returns!

it could potentially rebound it off…

Newton's third law... curses...

So here's what we know...

• Philae has landed successfully
• Neither the thruster nor the harpoons fired
• The ice screws on the lander's feet seem to have dug in to a soft surface
• Science data is being received
• The communications link from Philae to Rosetta keeps dropping and then coming back online
• The science team are still expecting good data

On balance, this looks great... much better than many people were expecting this morning.

First descent picture... stunning:

3km from the comet.

Stunning! Agreed!

Looking forward to an image from the comet itself… Waiting patiently again.

Wow... first image taken seconds before landing:

... and is this the first image of the surface?:

But I have to tell you guys: you all missed a great conference on data management. Fortunately I was there all day so I'll tell you all about it later...

you all missed a great conference on data management

Sorry I missed it 😉

What a great day for science though. I'm happy to say that I've done precisely NO work today... it's been worth every penny. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ooo lots of nice grains of dirt to cook in those teeny weeny ovens on Philae! Awesome to see such a clearcut image up this close. Hopefully Philae's ice screws should hold well, no? Priority is to fix the communications, then they can discuss carefully about anchoring Philae further with the Harpoons without causing repurcussions.

Just a thought, that the harpoon failure could be a blessing in disguise because they can use the harpoons at a later stage for when comet material starts to come off as it gets closer to the sun, so Philae can re-anchor itself with the harpoons to extend its stay.