The thread for space cadets!

[Algeroth]

Usa! Usa! Usa!

 

[GinandTonic]

The whole retro, harpoon and screws thing does make you realise why space agencies want triple redundancy.

 

[uppi]

And remind you that even with triple redundancy there is a small chance that all systems fail. But you can always rely on gravity .

 

[Lillefix]

Amazing pictures. But I thought there would be more snow.

 

[warpus]

Turns out Canada contributes to the ESA.. 30 million euros a year or something IIRC.

We should be celebrating more up here! We contributed to this mission! It seems like it anyway.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Spoiler :

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/Welcome_to_a_comet

It seems not a very good terrain to sow potatoes in any case. Also it looks shinny, may it be made of iron or it is some ice?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Well, it seems things were not completely OK yesterday. Even after touching on the expected place with total accuracy, as we all know harpoons didnt fire, so Philae rebounded at least three times before finally landing several meters away near a high rocky wall, which shadows the probe solar panels along almost all cometary day (12 hours) leaving only a hour or little more of sunlight instead of the seven expected. So now battery cant properly load and people at ESA fear its going to get exhausted in few hours.

All this shows as in space, even having triple redundance, a single issue/error can develop in a chain of events screwing the whole thing at the end. How many memories of KSP!

 

[warpus]

Apparently it was the highest ever "jump" by a man-made object:

So, Philae bounced twice before coming to a halt. 'Bounce' does not quite describe it correctly. Philae did by far the biggest #jump ever. The !$@%$#% tallest, longest, slowest JUMP ever done by a human made object (including humans). Without using thrusters, just by pushing off from a rock. That's something for the Guiness Book of Records.

And Philae was lucky as hell. It jumped about 1 km high and 1 km wide on a rock barely 2 km large. Had it jumped only a little bit more, then it would have missed this side of the comet and probably crashed head first into some other part. Philae jumped off very slowly at about 1/5 walking speed. Had it been twice as fast, then it would have left the comet entirely and it would be lost in space by now.

Lucky Philae.

Source

 

[illram]

Well what did they expect after landing on a giant rubber ducky at 40,000 miles per hour?

 

[Snerk]

So it's out of juice now? Surely there has to be someone on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko who can lend it a usb outlet or something for some power.

 

[GinandTonic]

They should never have bought the batteries from apple

So is the state of play that the soil sample is in and processed, but we have to hope the solar panels can drip charge enough juce over the few weeks to bring her out of hibernation and transmit the data?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

They said Philae will probably wake up again when the comet gets closer to the sun. Now it is sleeping.

Cant they place a tiny nuclear reactor in these probes as a backup for solar panels?

 

[Borachio]

I can't understand it: not a sign of the Clangers anywhere.

 

[Lillefix]

They said Philae will probably wake up again when the comet gets closer to the sun. Now it is sleeping.

Cant they place a tiny nuclear reactor in these probes as a backup for solar panels?

Good question. A nuclear reactor would be far too big, but there exist nuclear batteries, like the one on cassini around saturn. I remember there were protests before they launched it, because it would create nuclear falldown if the rocket exploded.

 

[uppi]

So is the state of play that the soil sample is in and processed, but we have to hope the solar panels can drip charge enough juce over the few weeks to bring her out of hibernation and transmit the data?

ESA said they got data from the processing instruments. I do not know whether they got all the data, but at least all experiments reported some data.

Cant they place a tiny nuclear reactor in these probes as a backup for solar panels?

In principle they could use radioisotope generators, which are the reason that Voyager I and II still work. But they probably need quite some power when landed, so they would need a large unit, which cannot be turned off and might overheat the spacecraft in flight.

 

[warpus]

 

[Thorgalaeg]

The last design has too many parts. It may result in lag issues..

 

[r16]

So it's out of juice now? Surely there has to be someone on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko who can lend it a usb outlet or something for some power.

hah , what have we got after wiping off the dust of Spirit or somethings' solar panels on Mars ? Westies are always so ungrateful .

 

[Kaitzilla]

The Sun in 4k resolution! @_@
(From mid to late October, 55 minutes per second, might want to mute the sound)


The giant bright spot is supposed to be 80,000 miles across!
The Sun also outmasses Earth by 330,000 times.

Link to video.

 

[El_Machinae]

Those flares that are going at totally-not-90-degrees (on the right) are extremely interesting!