Rosetta - Philae landing on Comet 67P

solar panels, batteries, sensors – must be a limiting factor to some extent

They always planned for the worst case, as I understand it... assuming that the batteries couldn't be recharged at all. Huge amounts of science were planned in the first few hours after landing, to cope with precisely this scenario.

If they could recharge the batteries, that really would be an extraordinary success... but the mission has already achieved an incredible feat. Perhaps we are just hoping for slightly too much!

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

Pretty amazing, though, isn't it! To think we threw something the size of a dishwasher into space 10 years ago, aiming it at a 2km target 500 million km away and - hey! So it bounced a couple of times and wound up under the ledge of a cliff. It still arrived in one piece and is sending back some pretty amazing stuff!

I say "we threw" - I will be claiming my fair share of the credit...

"Very hesitant to activate the drill"... they fear that they may tip over the lander.

"Hesitant to try and re-fire the harpoons"... would place momentum on lander and potentially push it away from the surface.

Clearly, they are being very, very careful, given the precarious nature of where they have landed.

Good news... solar panels probably not damaged... just in shadow.

they fear that they may tip over the lander.

The closing scene from The Italian Job 2?

Lander goes into "hibernation" if the battery runs down. It could survive in an inactive mode and wake up in a few months when it gets closer to the Sun... wow!!

Pierre made a great summary towards the hard edged press at the end of that really long update session. Basically, the success far far outweighs the so called "failures".

And as for those "failures"...its a testament to the brilliant design plan of incorporating redundancies, harpoon failed, ice grips failed YET the lander is sitting on the comet sending incredible scientific data.

From listening to everyone, I have absolutely every confidence they will make the best decisions to maximise the scientific effectiveness of the mission.

What a team. Brilliant minds and so re-assuring that they look press-proof, doing the best job they can to deliver the greatest achievements in space exploration.

So, the lander is in strange angle, with less solar exposure than they hoped...but get this, the designer of the landing gear prepared for all scenarios and is designed to make "jumps". So they have that option but they will intelligently weigh out the priorities.

I am happy for them and very excited at the plentiful scientific results that the great little Philae can manage in whatever precarious position it has ended up in!

Lander goes into “hibernation” if the battery runs down. It could survive in an inactive mode and wake up in a few months when it gets closer to the Sun… wow!!

Exactly, so much potential to come regardless of the obstacles!

The guys and gals who designed and built the thing more than a decade ago, spending years and years saying, "Okay, so what would happen if...?" must be thrilled to bits that some of their cleverer contingency plans are actually being activated!

I am not a twitter person but I do love reading the tweets from some of our recent space robots, such as Curiosity but I think the tweeting between Philae and Rosetta is my favourite.

Philae: "I am in the shadow of a cliff"
Rosetta: "You in the shadow? How am I supposed to spot you there?!"
Philae: "Phew! @ESA_Rosetta I am confident that our teams will find me. Wouldn’t like to lose touch with you. "

Aww, so charming...and weird! I think there is some bonding relationship going on there 🙂

Amusing to see that @Philae2014 follows @SarcasticRover - which tweets comments like this.

..must be thrilled to bits that some of their cleverer contingency plans are actually being activated!

Yes, great forward thinking there. Must be a great relief for those boys and girls to see that they had planned for certain eventualities. I guess you'd need to if you were investing so much into something.

Lander goes into “hibernation” if the battery runs down. It could survive in an inactive mode and wake up in a few months when it gets closer to the Sun… wow!!

That's amazing! I hope it doesn't need to hibernate as it'd be great to hear the findings from this mission sooner.

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

Might be a good thing to have landed on the rim of a crater as there could be matter thrown out from impact there. Imagine the eventual geological findings to be interesting because of this… ?

Might be a good thing to have landed on the rim of a crater as there could be matter thrown out from impact there. Imagine the eventual geological findings to be interesting because of this… ?

I like that thought! Perhaps another positive blessing in disguise.

This mission is a proving to be quite an improvisational one for the team.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/13/philae-comet-lander-alien-cover-up-conspiracy-theories-emerge Apparently the comet is really an alien space craft!!!!!!!

Hilarious. Love this quote:
"Whatever this object is, it did not ask to be found or scrutinised." - No, that would be because it's an inanimate object and didn't ask anyone for anything.