HARD TO BELIEVE AFTER THE BOTCHED TOUCHDOWN THAT PHILAE LANDER COMPLETED ALL MISSIONS ESA managers should STOP claiming unprecedented success for PR purposes. The way they landed Philae on to the surface of the comet is anything but a spectacular success. I am fast turning into a skeptic after seems like scientists too eager to claim success in the first phase when it is quite clear that the landing was botched and Philae lander has already gone silent - since Philae is in a shady area where solar panels are not receiving enough sunlight, see below copy and paste from ESA blog. . esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Pioneering_Philae_completes_main_mission_before_hibernation the lander’s body was lifted by about 4 cm and rotated about 35° in an attempt to receive more solar energy. But as the last science data fed back to Earth, Philae’s power rapidly depleted. “It has been a huge success, the whole team is delighted,” said Stephan Ulamec, lander manager at the DLR German Aerospace Agency, who monitored Philae’s progress from ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, this week. “Despite the unplanned series of three touchdowns, all of our instruments could be operated and now it’s time to see what we’ve got.” Against the odds – with no downwards thruster and with the automated harpoon system not having worked – Philae bounced twice after its first touchdown on the comet, coming to rest in the shadow of a cliff on Wednesday 12 November at 17:32 GMT (comet time – it takes over 28 minutes for the signal to reach Earth, via Rosetta).
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 08:14:00 +0000
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