back to article Philae's phinal phlop: Lonely lander didn't answer wakeup signal

Sunday's attempt to make contact with the Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has not succeeded. As we reported yesterday, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) yesterday on Sunday sent a command to Philae, suggesting it spin up its flywheel. That command was hoped to either lead to the lander shifting so its solar …

  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Well, you can't win 'em all, can you? Still, all things considered, an amazing mission. Anyone even thinking about calling it a failure? Better keep quiet - you have no idea...

    1. cbars Bronze badge
      Pint

      Here here! A jolly good show all round. I've loved following the progress of this historic mission, and its subsequent achievements among the way.

      Here's to the clever minds behind ESA

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. PJF
      Pint

      Butt..

      they could've. should've but...

      Hell, F-It! they did an AMAZING job!

      Here's atleast ONE - many more!

      "I" salute you.

    3. Mark 85
      Pint

      A failure? Not at all. It traveled, it landed, it sent back science. Other than a failure to communicate.... it is great.

      Since the command was sent as a "suggestion" per the second sentence in the article... I wonder if the little lander just being petulant that it can't come back to a ticker-tape parade? I do wish the designers of this achievement could get a parade in their honor.

      1. Naselus

        failure to communicate

        Some landers, you just can't reach.

    4. Stuart 22

      RIP Tom, Dave & Phil

      Ground Control to Major Tom

      Your circuit's dead,

      there's something wrong

      Can you hear me, Major Tom?

      Can you....

      Here am I floating

      round my tin can

      Far above the Moon

      Planet Earth is blue

      And there's nothing I can do

  2. AMBxx Silver badge
    Joke

    Docklands Light Railway

    Am I the only one initially confused about DLR talking to a lander?

    1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: Doesn't Look Right

      They must mean Digital Llama Radio.

  3. 0laf
    Pint

    Sad but not surprising.

    Still, you put remote vehicle in orbit around a frickin comet landed a spacecraft... ON A FRICKIN COMET!

    Job well done anyway chaps.

  4. monty75

    And I thought I had problems when I accidentally disabled the SSH daemon on a box 5000 miles away.

  5. Stevie

    Bah!

    A noble attempt but allow me to point out (again) that the only successful part of the probe part of the mission was the bit that depended mostly on maths. Just about all the crucial engineering involved failed spectacularly.

    The harpoon/tether did not work, the probe bounced and skidded across the comet *because* the harpoon gizmo was so important to the entrprise and the probe only ended up on the comet in the end because it crashed into a ravine where it lay unresponsive for lo these many months.

    Yes it was a very noble effort, but someone deserves a big fat "D-" for wasting everyone else's time.

  6. Hans 1
    Boffin

    @Stevie

    Come on, go look up how the lander was sent to the comet and how the lander was released ... it is a miracle that the lander managed to get 10 000kms close to the comet, let-alone land on it!!!!

    I think you need to re-take some GCSE-level physics classes ... and even then ...

    1. Stevie

      Miracle

      Come on, go look up how the lander was sent to the comet and how the lander was released ... it is a miracle that the lander managed to get 10 000kms close to the comet, let-alone land on it!!!!

      And I said the part that depended on maths was well done indeed. We pretty much understand how to do orbital mechanics and how to harden computers well enough to handle the on-board changes well enough to cope with the variables the comet's nature introduced. The science part was well done.

      But there was a single point of failure in the mission critical path: The harpoon/tether, which did not work. From that, the wreck of the entire mission can be traced. Sayin' it ain't so doesn't help get the next mission funded.

      If you don't think I was cheering this mission on from the sidelines you are badly mistaken. Big space nut., me. Mum pulled me out of school to see Yuri Gagarin's victory parade through red square - in the days before Telstar made international TV a common thing. Hell, we watched on a TV set my dad had made from parts sourced from Radiospares. A European mission to a comet? It doesn't get better than that.

      But rose-tinting the obvious failure doesn't help anyone.

      And as for "re-taking GCSE A levels", well, my A level physics grades were not good as I lacked some of the insight that has come from watching physics work in the real world, and hadn't stretched my maker legs much (money was tight). I could do better today I reckon, but sad to say I never took a GCSE.

      They hadn't been invented when I sat my A levels.

      I still have my Nelkon and Parker though.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Missing Lander

    <i>"The Rosetta probe, which bore Philae to Comet 67P, is still trying to spot the lander"</i>

    The lander has disappeared? ... maybe it got swallowed by one of those asteroid-inhabiting worms like the one which tried to eat the Millennium Falcon.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Missing Lander

      I, also, suspect that is the problem.

  8. Wommit
    Joke

    Yes, Very nice ...

    and all that. But Did you see his SHIRT!!!! I mean, well really.

    PS - See icon.

    1. Steven Roper

      Re: Yes, Very nice ...

      That incident was the final straw that turned my raw hatred of feminists and their SJW allies up to psychopathic levels. I'm glad I don't know any in real life because I'd likely have to serve time for what I'd do to those sanctimonious cunts if I ever met one in the flesh.

  9. Astarte

    Rosetta

    It's a shame Rosetta will be destroyed, after all 67P will be back in six and a bit years and who knows what may have changed.

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