"Copy 67P" in the by-line? Come on Simon... ;)
Philae's either screening Rosetta's calls or isn't home
The Rosetta probe's attempts to determine if the Philae lander is alive have come to nought. The Rosetta mission departed Earth in 2004 and planned to reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko a decade later. That plan worked and the probe reached the comet then, as planned, send the Philae lander to 67P's surface. That plan also …
COMMENTS
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Sunday 22nd March 2015 23:04 GMT Uncle Ron
Not Good Writing:
You said, "That plan also worked, mostly, save for Philae landing in a spot where its solar cells can't gather enough energy for it to do any work."
And then you said, "Philae did manage to operate on battery power for 54 hours, which was enough time for it to put all ten of its onboard instruments to work and beam back lots of data."
Aren't those two sentences absolutely CONTRADICTORY? It couldn't gather enough power to do any work, yet it worked for 54 hours, used ALL TEN of it's instruments and sent back LOTS of data.
I don't like cynical writers who don't know what they're trying to say.
Philae was an UNBELIEVABLE success. It didn't do EVERYTHING that was hoped for. It may yet. That's what I would say.
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Tuesday 24th March 2015 10:58 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: if the comet melts as it gets closer to the Sun...
> That might happen in another 100,000 years
Actually it might happen rather sooner: recall that Churyumov–Gerasimenko has virtually no gravity and that the lander's harpoons failed to fire. So a spurt of gas caused by solar warming could easily push Rosetta off the surface into orbit around the Sun.
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