Tag: Comet Landing
-
2014’s top stories in spaceflight
The year ended with a deluge of big news, reminding us of the risks of spaceflight and the thin margins between success and failure on the final frontier. 2014 was also a year of breakthroughs in the exploration of the solar system and the future of human spaceflight. The Spaceflight Now editorial team has ranked…
-
Scientific riches await Philae comet lander, if it wakes up
This four-image mosaic comprises images taken from a distance of 20.1 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the center of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Dec. 10. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM Optimistic Europe’s hibernating Philae comet lander can be revived, mission controllers plan to try and contact the spacecraft as soon as January as the search narrows for the probe’s final…
-
Philae’s “little cousin” heading for asteroid touchdown
A technician installs the MASCOT lander into the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft before launching to an asteroid. Credit: DLR Weeks after accomplishing the first touchdown on a comet, the team of European scientists that developed the Philae landing craft is awaiting launch of a related robot riding piggyback with Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to achieve the…
-
Philae finds comet harbors organics
A view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Rosetta when it flew 10 kilometers away. Credit: ESA/NAVCAM Europe’s Philae lander found a surface as hard as ice and organic molecules after it bounced to a stop on a comet last week. Scientists looking over the spoils from the plucky little Philae probe released some of the first…
-
Rosetta camera sees Philae bouncing across comet
ESA PHOTO RELEASE These incredible images show the breathtaking journey of Rosetta’s Philae lander as it approached and then rebounded from its first touchdown on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014. The mosaic comprises a series of images captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera over a 30 minute period spanning the first touchdown. The time of…
-
Rosetta imagery shows Philae at first landing site
Images recorded by Rosetta’s navigation camera appear to show the lander, its shadow and the dust cloud kicked up by its first touchdown. Image: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM; pre-processed by Mikel Canania The first image in the sequence was taken on at 15:30 GMT on 12 November, just before the lander’s first touchdown; the second image was taken at 15:35…
-
Loss of contact with Philae
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS “SPACE PLACE” & USED WITH PERMISSION Trapped in a forbidding jumble of sun-blocking cliffs and rocky debris, the Philae comet lander, its batteries nearly depleted, somehow managed to contact the Rosetta mothership Friday in true cliffhanger fashion, relaying stored science data back to Earth and receiving commands to turn in…
-
Lander manager says Philae is doing well but battery life is low
The lander project manager Stephan Ulamec says tremendous science has been collected during Philae’s short time on the surface but battery life is now limited and it is unlikely to last much longer.
-
Researchers race to collect comet data from Philae
Artist’s concept of the Philae lander. Credit: ESA DARMSTADT, Germany — Comet scientists planned to send up new orders to Europe’s Philae lander Thursday to kick off a second day of research after the probe endured a jumpy touchdown on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Time is of the essence because the oven-sized landing craft is facing a power…
-
Mission scientist reacts to historic first images from the surface of a comet
Rosetta mission scientist Matt Taylor says the science team is jubilant after the Philae lander captured the historic, first close up images of the surface of a comet and began returning data from its science instruments.