Darmstadt, Philae Has Landed
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta project to land on a comet is at a minimum a partial success. The BBC reports – Rosetta: Waiting game after comet lander glitch.
The planning for the mission started a quarter century ago, and was launched a decade ago. It managed to rendezvous with the comet after traveling about 60 billion miles, and then released the Philae landing module.
The rockets that would have help hold the lander to comet didn’t work, and. apparently the ‘harpoons’ that were supposed to anchor the lander to the comet didn’t fire. The speculation is that the lander bounced at least once before settling on the comet.
Some data has been received, but there is a half-hour delay caused by the distance between the vehicles and earth. Now there is a waiting game to get the data to find out more about the condition of the lander and its functions.
Update: The lander apparently bounced several times and is in an area with shade on some of its solar panels which will limit its available power. Other than that, and the fact that it isn’t firmly rooted to the comet, it seems to be OK.
