Rosetta - Philae landing on Comet 67P

It's been an exciting day and at times, filled with nail biting anticipation for the well-being of the little Philae spacecraft. We watched history being made! Couldn't ask for more than that.

May not be able to catch the update tomorrow (at 1pm GMT, I believe) so hoping that I don't miss too much! Will be keeping an eye on this discussion to stay up to speed!

...and it was nice to share the anticipation with you guys 🙂

Couldn't agree more, Tej!

*Breaks open a box of Quality Street chocolates*

*Hums the theme tune from the old TV ads*

Errrmmm... OK... so now it turns out that Philae landed THREE times!

The first at 15:33, after which it stayed off the ground for 113 minutes, and bounced to a height of (potentially) nearly 500 metres.

The second landing was at 17:26, when it bounced and stayed off the ground for 7 minutes, maybe about 3 metres above the surface.

The final landing was at 17:33.

This is incredible. No wonder telemetry was unstable! Haven't heard yet if they have been able to re-establish communications this morning. No doubt we will find out soon.

It's still alive! Signals received from Philae.

Looks like we have our first official picture from the surface:

One of the lander's feet can be seen in the foreground. Beautiful image, but a worrying amount of shadow... will the solar panels work? The full panoramic view will come this afternoon, apparently.

Also, it turns out that NONE of the mechanisms to stick Philae to the surface of the comet have worked (including the ice screws). They are going to have to be very careful with the drilling... it could be enough to rebound Philae off of the surface again.

Estimates from mission scientists show that Philae may have bounced up 1km after initial touchdown and then a further 20m on the second "touch-down".

This image release took me by surprise! Great image. Gonna miss the release of the panorama so will look here later.

Worrying though that none of the mechanisms to secure Philae to the surface have worked. Really must be gripping on - resilient little thing! Could it be that the jagged surroundings are wedging it in place?

Little Philae sure is having a thrilling adventure. I am going to take the gripping/anchoring failure as a potential positive. Because Philae has demonstrated that it can bounce up to 1000m which gives it some leeway- later on, once they have exhausted that spot, they can get inventive and use that bounce to go to another spot. Bounce it with a tiny bit of the thruster or something. For now, they'll have to drill very slowly. If drilling is proving difficult due to the lack of Philae's grip on the surface then they can try refire the harpoons? Perhaps the harpoons failed to deploy because they pre programmed it not to fire if the thrusters failed.

Anyway all of this is all part of the space exploration learning curve!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30034060

Press conference hasn't started yet... seems to be their usual customary delay 😉

All I could see was the back of Stuart Clark's head for 5 minutes... come on Stu... tell them to hurry up!

Ooooo... here we go...

These new images are amazing.

Firstly, the overhanging cliff, probably metres away from the lander:

Facing the sky:

Foot of lander:

Stretched image in shadow of lander - looks like a wall only a metre away:

Panorama... the sky is upwards:

Finally, an impression of where the lander is situated... almost vertical with one foot in space and two feet on the surface:

So, they bounced from the red area to somewhere in the blue area:

In the shadow of a cliff, and possibly on the rim of a crater.

Only 1.5 hours of sunlight being received, instead of 6 hours. That will certainly shorten the lifespan of the lander.

Image taken 40 seconds prior to first landing. Note the rock in the top right partially covered in dust, suggesting active processes on the surface:

That will certainly shorten the lifespan of the lander.

It must be very frustrating for the team to be having to work with 10-year-old technology. I'm sure they've been able to do software upgrades all the way along but the hardware - solar panels, batteries, sensors - must be a limiting factor to some extent.