Magnificent work ESA ...

[andrew63]

Some good news on Philae this morning.

BBC News - Rosetta: Comet probe Philae now stable - scientists

andrew

[Treeden]

Some good news on Philae this morning.

BBC News - Rosetta: Comet probe Philae now stable - scientists

Andrew

Thanks for the heads-up Andrew.

"European Space Agency engineers working on the lander say it may have bounced hundreds of metres back up off the surface after first touching down"

This latest news ties-in with the earlier news report about three landings

"ROMAP magnetic field analysis revealed 3 landings at 15:33, 17:26 and 17:33 UTC"

If the first landing was 15:33 and the second at 17:26, then that would seem to indicate a rather large bounce!

[bomberbaz]

first landing estimated to be 1km, second bounce much smaller s only up in air about 10minutes

[Paul M]

I bet they couldn't do that again!

It seems very, very fortunate that it landed in a stable attitude after the bounce. Lets hope it stays healthy.

[Luke]

I am sadly out of single malt (where does it go?) but I did think this was something worth drinking to. Maybe it's not too late...

I think you could see some of the best things about us humans in this undertaking. Curiosity to know our place in the Universe, to reach out into the unknown, to dream that it is possible, and to think about how to pull it off.

[callisto]

Get Bruce and the gang up there to fix the problem

[Helen]

I am sadly out of single malt (where does it go?) but I did think this was something worth drinking to. Maybe it's not too late...

I think you could see some of the best things about us humans in this undertaking. Curiosity to know our place in the Universe, to reach out into the unknown, to dream that it is possible, and to think about how to pull it off.

And to work across boundaries and languages too

Helen

[gajjer]

Here is a  question for the school kids amongst us.

We know the lander bounced up about 1km and it took 2hours approx between touch downs.

What is the acceleration due to gravity on 67P?

And what would an object weighing 100kg on earth weigh on the comet?

Your time starts now.

cheers

gaj

[symesie04]

I believe it weighs just 10g on 67p

[Helen]

And its back in comms - phew! and confirmed its drilled a comet 

Helen

[Austin]

I too watched the landing on ustream, nerve wracking yet very exciting next up, december the fourth!!

[Helen]

I was sat up in bed last night watching the twitter feed - it was quite emotional.  Philae has certainly become a character not a piece of machinery!  I think having its own Twitter feed and tweeting this like helped

Will it awake from hibernation????

Helen

[David Smith]

I was doing exactly the same thing, watching the tweets coming in, willing in onto success.

[Cath]

Poor little Philae, left all alone hidden in a dark cliff edge corner desperately trying to cling on for dear life and stay awake at the same time

[Paul M]

Nah!

He's a boy. He's found a dark spot out of the way to have a nap. Every time mother passes by overhead whining at him , giving him jobs to do, he just does a bit then nods off, Eventually he says " leave me alone ,I'm tired!" and lies about his batteries going flat. And then pull the blanket over his head, ignoring the world.

He'll wake up in hi own time but who knows what his mood will be.

Kids....

[Cath]

Well at least Mum's there too

[mjpfc]

Not only Landed on, but got just about all the primary science done as well.

By the time Philae wakes up again all hell will be breaking loose around it..........and have you seen the close-up

(10km) shots from Rosetta ?  what a mission.

The last few days has been like sitting through Cassini-Hugens at Titan again, absolutely terriffic.

Mick

[John]

In one of the twitter feeds someone has posted a pic of a jiffy bag with a 1st class stamp on and addressed to Philae on the comet with some Duracell batteries in it. The caption is "If only we could ...."

[andrew63]

Can you land on a Comet ?  See if you match the ESA crew !

BBC News - Rosetta mission: Can you land on a comet?

andrew

[Cath]

It's hard to get a scale of things from the pictures, but 67P (the comet) is around 5km long.

Philae image From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/11234216/Rosetta-mission-Philae-finally-spotted-on-comet.html ..

First bounce mark and final resting place.

If landing once wasn't enough, they did it twice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcLFHzC5kIs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEfJ1tYKHTk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR-5kKuIx6I

[Cath]

Not final resting place sorry, just first bounce mark.