Rosetta: landing on a comet
Rosetta will release its Philae lander when approximately 22 kilometres from the centre of the comet. A signal confirming the separation will arrive at ground stations on Earth 28 minutes and 20 seconds later while the lander’s descent to the surface will take seven hours. On the way down, Philae will take a series of images and onboard instruments will sample the dust, gas and plasma close to the comet’s surface and measure any magnetic field.
Philae’s three lander legs will absorb the momentum of impact and use it to drive an ice screw in each foot into the surface. At the same time two harpoons will fire to lock the probe onto the surface and a small thruster on top will counteract the impulse. Once anchored to the nucleus, Philae will begin its primary science mission, based on its initial battery lifetime of 64 hours.
The SESAME experiment – which contains three instruments – includes one called CASSE, located in the lander’s feet. Harald KRUEGER, Principal Investigator of Rosetta’s SESAME experiment, explains how CASSE will use acoustic waves to determine properties of the comet’s soil.
Within hours of landing, we also hope to see the first ever images of a comet from its surface.
More about the Rosetta mission: http://rosetta.esa.int
Why didn't they use a nuclear reactor-based engine like curiosity?
We are so primative… If we placed ALL of our efforts on space (That is the future of humanity) we would be flying on huge space cruisers warping from an solar system to another.
Wow amazing how many idiots are in this comment section .Why are you even here if you dont believe this? Well it happened anyway
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Didn't The Lander failed to land at first and THEN landed?
It's so much better watching this listening to The Immigrant Song. ^_^
Its too bad they lost contact with the probe once it landed on the comet… could have had some really amazing findings that we missed out on.
These are the only people who need to learn calculus.
Thanks for your help and support regards to your family for the holidays and all the best for your future endeavors
You know, I was on a big space flight kick in 6th grade, about the time this happened. My science teacher said, during some space rock lesson, that you cannot land on a comet. That night, I sent her a link, showing the report on the landing. She also got kicked out for being incompetent that same year, so, I guess thats why she didn't know.
Gosto destas linhss, entrelinhas!! A aterragem num minuto inseguro …que depois de um apagão …veio a sinalização bíp, bíp!! Isto vem sublinhar que quando o homem põe todo o seu potencial pode realizar impossíveis! Este caso minucioso foi mais um momento único na exploração espacial!!
Is it possible to land probes on these comets to use them as cheap natural rockets for deep space exploration ? They even return close during their journey