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Philae's Batteries Have Drained; Comet Lander Sleeps
astroengine (1577233) writes "In the final hours, Philae's science team hurried to squeeze as much science out of the small lander as possible. But the deep sleep was inevitable, Rosetta's lander has slipped into hibernation after running its batteries dry. This may be the end of Philae's short and trailblazing mission on the surface of Comet 67P, but a huge amount of data — including data from a drilling operation that, apparently, was carried out despite concerns that Philae wasn't positioned correctly — was streamed to Rosetta mission control. "Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence," said Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager. "This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered.""
3D printing and private space means that we'll soon have dozens, no, hundreds of private space probes out there searching for mineable asteroids and comets because there's just so much money to be made out there!
I think we're all more interested in the shirt drama than any of this science stuff!
While the main battery is nearly depleted and at this point there is not enough solar power striking the solar panels to boot it back up, as the comet approaches the sun the light intensity should go up. We can hope that the existing conditions provide enough power to prevent damage to the landers electronics. Then as the comet approaches the sun and the comet either changes origination to provide more light or just Philae get more intense light it may rise again. That would be grand!
I had to google "shirtstorm" to see what you're talking about... holy shit there is no hope left for society
A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
Because the scientists wear shirts featuring pin-up girls!"
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Electric Sleep?
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
Only if comets are balls of ice, like we used to think. Shooting off monster blasts of vaporized rock needs a lot more heat, so there's probably a chance to charge up the batteries before then :)
This may be the end of Philae’s short and trailblazing mission on the surface of Comet 67P, but a huge amount of data — including data from a drilling operation that, apparently, was carried out despite concerns that Philae wasn’t positioned correctly — was streamed to Rosetta mission control, potentially revolutionizing our understanding about the nature of comets.
And Rosetta will continue orbiting its comet as 67P drops closer to the sun, providing us with a unique and historic perspective on an icy body that could hold the secrets to the formation of our solar system.
I'm sorry, where does it say that the mission was a failure?
"No country for young men"
How much ado about nothing. This ladies will go insane at the hentai floors of the bookstores at Akihabara, and then buy a truckload of boylove manga.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
Fifty-six hours after landing on the surface of a comet, Philae sent one more round of data about its new home across 310 million miles of space. Then, its power went out.
"@Rosetta, I'm feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap..." read a message on the @philae2014 Twitter feed.
The Rosetta mission's twitter response: "You've done a great job Philae, something no spacecraft has ever done before."
All the experiments on board the lander had a chance to run and return information back to Earth. Philae's instruments scooped up material from the comet's surface, took its temperature, sent radio waves through its nucleus, and went hunting for hints of organic material. Cameras took the first panoramic images from the surface of a comet.
It has been a whirlwind ride for the lander, which was dropped onto the surface of the mountain-sized comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday morning. Two harpoons that were designed to tether it to the surface failed to fire, and scientists say the lander made two bounces before becoming stable. The first bounce caused the lander to go one-third of a mile into the air.
Friday morning, ESA officials expressed concern that the lander would not have enough battery power left to send back any more data from experiments it was conducting on its new, icy home.
When Philae landed on the comet on Wednesday, it had enough battery power for about 60 hours of work. Scientists initially hoped that it would continue to operate on solar power, but the lander seemed to have settled in a hole on the comet, where it was surrounded by rock-like structures that block the sun.
Stefan Ulamec, the lander manager from DLR, said the that one of the solar panels on the lander was getting about an hour and 20 minutes of sunlight a day. Two other panels got just 20 to 30 minutes a day, he said.
At a news conference Friday morning before the last signal was received, Ulamec said it was possible that scientists would not hear from the lander again.
"We are hoping to get contact again this evening, but it is not secured," he said. "Maybe the battery will be empty before it talks to us."
Happily, that turned out not to be the case. On Friday evening, ESA reported that all the science experiments had been deployed, and that the lander had been rotated 35 degrees in an attempt to get more sun on one of its larger solar panels.
There is a chance that as the comet flies closer to the sun, the increase in solar energy will allow ESA to communicate with Philae once again.
ESA officials say the odds of that happening are small, but with Philae, the little lander that could, anything is possible.
When you stop and think about the fact that the Rosetta project was launched over ten years ago (something I didn't realize until recently), it's hard not to feel sorry for the scientists and others on the project.
The statements the ESA is putting out have a positive spin on them (for multiple reasons, I'm sure), but at the end of the day this has got to be a pretty hard blow to the people personally invested in the project. After the effort required just to get it launched and a decade of waiting, it must be hard on them. Wish them the best of luck for a second chance when the comet nears the Sun.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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After all the trouble and expense of sending a probe or lander out into the unknown, it seems a waste not to provide them with an RTG for reliable power. Solar panels have hobbled Mars rovers as well as other spacecraft.
Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh
On the comet, the mighty comet,
the lander sleeps tonight.
On the comet, the quiet comet,
the lander sleeps tonight.
woo-oo-OO-oo..
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
I have both sciences, feminist and general news sources in my regular news feed. I've seen much more stuff about sciences than about shirt. Maybe you should reconsider your sources of information and remove some of the "feminist are devil" sources from them.
Most people can think about more than one thing at a time. So in my head at the moment we have: It's an amazing achievement for the ESA and the team and for humanity at large. AND putting on that shirt was a bit thoughtless if he knew he was going to be on TV. AND if he didn't know he'd be asked to talk on TV and his bosses made him do it, that was a bit stupid on their part. AND if the TV people picked him to be on TV because of his shirt, that was pretty dickish of them.
See? You can think of more than one thing at a time and none of the other thing detract from the defining achievement of the mission. Unless you're a piss-baby who thinks your world is being ruined by SJWs. Then you can only keep one thing in your head at a time I guess.
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
So sarcasm aside, it sounds like you're annoyed that people got diverted from talking about the science to discuss the politics of a shirt? In fact you were so concerned about the issue you decided to write a post diverting us from talking about the science to discuss the politics of discussing the politics of a shirt. After all, it's of dire importance we raise awareness about people trying to raise awareness about the shirt since none of the people complaining about it were kind enough to complain about it here first where we would be aware of it.
Well speech is free, and it's not like we can't discuss both issues (or all three issues?) And I am glad you care enough about justice in these kinds of social issues to fight for your beliefs!
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
What you really want is a Nuclear Verne Gun.
Launch 3500 tonnes at escape velocity in a single shot. Enough to kickstart a lunar colony. All for roughly the same cost as a single 20 tonne-to-LEO conventional rocket launch.
Drill a 2-3km shaft into a salt dome, excavate a cavity at the bottom, suspend a 150kT nuclear warhead at the centre surrounded by a reaction mass, such as water laced with a neutron absorber. Above the cavity, at the bottom of the shaft, put a large shock absorber (such as a few hundred metres of oil backed by an ablative-coated pusher plate), with your 3500 tonnes of payload on top.
Most of the radiation would be contained underground, and a dome over the launch site would capture most of the rest.
If you want to launch into LEO, you can have a much larger payload, over 10,000 tonnes, but you'll need a conventionally rocket as a "chase ship" to grab it and circularise the orbit. Likewise you'll need an insertion and landing burns for a lunar payload, however you can use Orion-type nuclear propulsion once you're past the Van Allen belts. Launch your delicate payloads (like people) via more conventional means.
This would be an ideal way for China to leap decades ahead of every other space power in just one or two (somewhat controversial) Verne launches. 3500 tonnes would be enough payload for not only a lunar base, but enough fuel stockpiled in lunar orbit to power a LEO-LLO ferry for the conventionally launched humans (and delicate payloads.) Pretty much as soon as they have their proposed space station built, they have enough technology and capacity to take advantage of the Verne payload.
Note: 150kT keeps you under the cut-off for the nuclear test ban treaty. However, in an emergency (say, asteroid threat) a 20MT warhead would be able to launch over 200,000 tonnes (almost two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.)
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
"Science data" as opposed to "telemetry data". It's a bit of a jargon term, but makes sense to me.
Money and fear. Pu-238 is in pretty short supply and (afaik) is not being "made" because the toxicity and complications of manufacture can't justify the price. It was, iirc, a byproduct of nuclear warhead production and now that we're not actively building up an arsenal to turn the planet into radioactive glass there's none to be had.
The fear part is, of course, the danger that a fairly hot (if small) sample would be a hazard in the event of a launch failure. Now, in reality I think RTG hot products are packaged in MP35N, a high-nickel stainless which, as it was explained to me by a NASA engineer, "in 10,000 years when all traces of the human race are at the bottom of the ocean, the parts that are still shiny will be the ones that were made of MP35N." Still, OMG R4di04CtiV3!11!1!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
This ain't even a joke. My "Boy Love" fanatic ex also thought it was okay to have videos of 12 year old boys showering and hugging inappropriately, all the while blaming anyone unfortunate enough to be male for starting at her nearly exposed breasts, and calling every regretful sexual encounter "rape". The feminist double standards have really gone too far, affected the minds of girls who are now young adults, and have begun to remove all safe spaces for men to be themselves. Speaking out against this gets you labelled as a misogynist without further discussion leaving many men without a voice, which is the actual definition of oppression.
Why does my post history abruptly stop? I want to laugh at the stupid things I posted as a kid.
the statements about dead of the lander are slightly exaggerated. It may still wake up. What was the last time when your project delivered all you started it for, did it on time and possibly (as we do not know it yet) did not reach goals on ambition level? I would like project that I work on be as good as this one. But than I have the biggest evil in the whole universe to fight against: bean counters.
I was manager at Boeing on a Gun-Launch propellant delivery system study, and using them for space launch is quite feasible. They have been used in hypersonic research for decades, like this one at Arnold Engineering Development Center: https://upload.wikimedia.org/w... You just need to make one somewhat larger, and install it on a mountain with the right slope.
Gas guns are preferred over electromagnetic ones for low launch rates. The power supply for a space launch gun would be immense, because the power draw is very high for a short time. High pressure gas can be stored in a tank, and released all at once. Electromagnetic would be more efficient in the long run, but you need to overcome the high initial cost.
For humans and spacecraft equipment (as opposed to bulk items like fuel and structural parts), you are limited to about 6 g's (60 m/s^2). There are a few locations on Earth where you can install a 20 km pipe, which lets you reach about Mach 5. The gas pressure for that level of acceleration is surprisingly low, about what is put in vehicle tires.