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Rosetta's Philae Probe To Land On Comet Tomorrow

Posted by Soulskill on from the best-of-luck dept.

An anonymous reader writes: After more than 10 years travelling, the Rosetta mission will take its next, momentous step by landing the Philae probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko tomorrow. How f!@#$%ing cool is that?! Follow the landing live using the webcast, blog, or Twitter feed. (Keep in mind there's a 28-minute delay due to the time it takes the radio signals to reach Earth). Here's the scheduling info: "For the primary landing scenario, targeting Site J, Rosetta will release Philae at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET at a distance of 22.5 km from the center of the comet, landing about seven hours later. The one-way signal travel time between Rosetta and Earth on 12 November is 28 minutes 20 seconds, meaning that confirmation of the landing will arrive at Earth ground stations at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET. If a decision is made to use the backup Site C, separation will occur at 13:04 GMT/14:04 CET, 12.5 km from the center of the comet. Landing will occur about four hours later, with confirmation on Earth at around 17:30 GMT/18:30 CET. The timings are subject to uncertainties of several minutes."

2 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Check out the math by Beeftopia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Animated gif of the probe's path, from launch to rendezvous.

  2. Re:How f!@#$%ing cool is that?! by iggymanz · · Score: 1, Interesting

    One of the powers that actual adults have is to be able to invent new and particularly offense swear words to tweak puritan-types.