Once Upon a Time: The amazing adventures of #Rosetta and #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/12/23/once-upon-a-time-the-amazing-adventures-of-rosetta-and-philae
Watch the amazing cartoon adventures of Rosetta and Philae, now back-to-back in one special feature-length production. Find out how Rosetta and Philae first got inspired to visit a comet, and follow them on their incredible ten-year journey through the Solar System to their destination, flying around planets and past asteroids along the way. Watch as Philae tries to land on the comet and deals with some unexpected challenges! Learn about the fascinating observations that Rosetta made as she watched the comet change before her eyes as they got closer to the Sun and then further away again. Finally, wish Rosetta farewell, as she, too, finishes her amazing adventure on the surface of the comet. Keep watching for one last surprise! French version: Italian version: Spanish version: German version (...)
]]>Impressions of #Rosetta’s legacy
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/12/23/impressions-of-rosettas-legacy
In September–October 2016, over 200 people contributed to the #rosetta Legacy campaign, sharing stories, images, videos, creations and experiences to convey what the mission had meant to them. We decided to collect all contributions in an e-book, to keep a long-lasting record of the mission’s impact on a variety of public audiences. This publication presents a collection of these outstanding contributions and provides a taste of Rosetta’s legacy for fellow science communicators, scientists and engineers, educators, space enthusiasts – anyone who was fascinated by the mission. The e-book (pdf, 33MB) is available here. Thanks again to everyone who shared with us their impressions of the mission, and to all followers of Rosetta and #Philae (...)
#Comet_67P #Fun_stuff #Outreach ##rosettalegacy #comet #engagement #inspiration #outreach #philae
]]>An encounter with #Klim_Churyumov
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/11/11/an-encounter-with-klim-churyumov
Two years ago this week, the entire world was getting ready for a historic endeavour in space: the first soft #Landing of a human-made probe on a #comet. On 12 November 2014, #Rosetta's lander #Philae landed on #Comet_67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, and while the landing didn’t go exactly as planned, Philae finally managed to secure itself to the nucleus and to conduct a series of scientific experiments in situ, while Rosetta kept observing the comet from a distance until the mission’s end last September. As communicators of ESA’s #Science missions, we gathered at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, to follow Philae’s landing and report it via ESA’s web and social media. During the week, ESOC was packed with scientists and engineers from the Rosetta and Philae (...)
]]>#Rosetta #legacy winner announced
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/11/10/rosetta-legacy-winner-announced
Between 6 September and 7 October 2016, we collected 235 contributions to the #rosetta Legacy tumblr. A huge and sincere thank you to all participants who shared experiences, stories and images of how the mission of Rosetta and #Philae to #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has inspired their lives, including study and career choices, artistic practice and other creative endeavours! The authenticity and ingenuity of the submitted entries was overwhelming, and it has been challenging to pick one top prize winner (apologies for the delay!). One entry in particular caught the attention of the ESA judges for the combination of creative effort and motivation, so we selected Cristina Romero from Spain as the top prize winner. The prize consists in a special visit to #estec, ESA’s technical heart in (...)
]]>#Rosetta #legacy Highlights
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/29/rosetta-legacy-highlights
Over the past two years, the #rosetta mission has captured the imagination of many people worldwide, stimulating them to produce art and music, and to undertake other creative activities with friends and families – some even made further education or career choices inspired by the mission. This #video features a selection of contributions that were shared on the Rosetta Legacy tumblr before 21 September 2016: We also asked some of the contributors to tells us more about how the mission influenced their study, career and life in general: The Rosetta Legacy campaign will run until 7 October 2016. Share your stories, images and videos on ▻http://rosetta-legacy.tumblr.com and be in with a chance to win spot prizes (Rosetta and #Philae plush toys) and a visit at ESA’s ESTEC as top prize.
#Audio #Comet_67P #Comets_and_culture #Fun_stuff #Landing #Outreach #Wake_up #citizens #comet #inspiration #outreach #philae
]]>Beneath the surface of #Comet_67P
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/29/beneath-the-surface-of-comet-67p
While scientists and the public alike have been astounded by the unexpected shape of Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s nucleus, what lies beneath the surface is just as important scientifically. Comet interiors preserve a unique record from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. Reaching that information was one of the key tasks of #Rosetta and #Philae. There were two principal experiments designed to ’see’ inside the comet’s nucleus: the COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio-wave Transmission (CONSERT) instrument and the Radio #Science Investigation (RSI). Comets are known to be mixtures of dust and ice. Yet puzzlingly, measurements show that 67P/C-G’s density is much lower than ice. This means the comet has a high porosity, and could be an indicator that there (...)
]]>#Science #highlights briefing starting soon
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/29/science-highlights-briefing-starting-soon
The #Rosetta #science highlight briefing at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, will start shortly. Tune in from 14:30 14:45 to the livestream viewer at #rosetta.esa.int or via ▻https://livestream.com/ESA/rosettagrandfinale or ESA’s Facebook page to follow dedicated talks celebrating the scientific highlights of the mission. Programme overview Matt Taylor (ESA’s Rosetta Project Scientist): Introduction Mohamed El-Maarry (OSIRIS team, University of Bern): Landscapes of Chury Valerie Ciarletti (CONSERT team, Universités Paris-Saclay): Getting the ground truth about the nucleus Thurid Mannel (MIDAS team, University of Graz): Dust under the microscope Jean-Baptiste Vincent (OSIRIS team, Max-Planck Institute for Solar Physics, Göttingen): Cometary activity and (...)
#Comet_67P #Comets #Instruments #Philae #comet #consert #MIDAS #osiris #rosina #rpc
]]>Living with a comet: a CONSERT team perspective
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/28/living-with-a-comet-a-consert-team-perspective
Rosetta and #Philae were both equipped with the CONSERT radar experiment in order to bounce radio waves between the two to study the internal structure of the comet. Little did we know that this instrument would play a critical role in locating where the missing lander had bounced to after its unexpected landing on 12 November. Instrument Principal Investigator Wlodek Kofman shares how CONSERT’s modest measurements have yielded big results. It is good to remember that CONSERT, in the morning of 13 November 2014, provided the first estimation of where #philae had bounced to the previous day, based on the data collected overnight from 12 to 13 November. After that the #Rosetta project requested to add three additional #Operations of CONSERT in order to perform the triangulation and improve (...)
]]>#CometWatch 18 September – a new view of #Rosetta’s impact site
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/23/cometwatch-18-september-a-new-view-of-rosettas-impact-site
As the #rosetta mission draws to a close next Friday, 30 September 2016, the CometWatch team here at ESA realised that this will be the last ’regular’ entry of this popular feature on the blog (*) through which we have shared a great deal of views of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken with Rosetta’s navigation camera (NAVCAM) since July 2014, shortly before Rosetta’s arrival at the #comet. As it happens, Rosetta recently took a new image of its final “landing” site on 67P/C-G, which we thought would make the perfect entry for this week’s CometWatch. The image was taken on 18 September 2016, when the spacecraft was 12.1 km from the centre of the comet. The image depicts the dust-covered terrains of #Ma'at, on the small comet lobe, where Rosetta is destined to make a controlled impact next (...)
#Images #Landing #Philae ##CometLanding #end_of_mission #landing_sites #navcam #osiris #philae
]]>#Philae found !
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/05/philae-found
Less than a month before the end of the mission, #Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae #lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The #Images were taken on 2 September by the #osiris narrow-angle camera as the orbiter came within 2.7 km of the surface and clearly show the main body of the lander, along with two of its three legs. The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation, making it clear why establishing communications was so difficult following its #Landing on 12 November 2014. “With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail,” says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team, the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from Rosetta (...)
]]>What does the #Rosetta mission mean to you?
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/06/what-does-the-rosetta-mission-mean-to-you
To celebrate the success of #rosetta and to keep a long-lasting record of its impact on the world, we invite you to share your personal experiences and feelings about how the mission has influenced you. Perhaps you followed the mission via this blog, the news or other social media channels, and found a special link between the spacecraft visiting #Comet_67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and your own experience. Maybe you’ve been stimulated to create art, music, or a theatrical production, or perhaps you brought Rosetta and #Philae into your every day life at home through creative activities or games with your children. Or did you learn about the mission at school? Maybe you based a project on Rosetta and #philae’s adventures, or even made a further education or career choice inspired by the (...)
]]>Celebrating two years at the comet
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/08/05/celebrating-two-years-at-the-comet
We’re celebrating #Rosetta’s two year anniversary at #Comet_67P/C-G (tomorrow!) with a new animation visualising the spacecraft’s incredible adventure flying alongside the comet. The animation begins on 31 July 2014, during #rosetta’s final approach to the comet after its ten-year journey through space. The spacecraft arrived at a distance of 100 km on 6 August whereupon it gradually approached the comet and entered initial mapping orbits that were needed to select a #Landing site for #philae. These observations also enabled the first comet #Science of the mission. The manoeuvres in the lead up to, during and after Philae’s deployment on 12 November are seen, before Rosetta settled into longer-term science orbits. In February and March 2015 the spacecraft made several flybys. One of the closest (...)
#Arrival #Operations ##CometLanding ##LivingWithAComet ##perihelion2015 ##WakeUpRosetta #orbit #timeline #trajectory
]]>New Vangelis album inspired by ESA’s #Rosetta mission
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/29/new-vangelis-album-inspired-by-esas-rosetta-mission
Legendary composer and pioneer of electronic #music Vangelis has produced a brand new album, ‘Rosetta’, inspired by ESA’s #rosetta mission. The release of the album by Decca Records on 23 September coincides with the culmination of Rosetta’s 12-year mission to orbit and land its #Philae probe on #comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta is set to complete its journey in a controlled descent to the surface of the comet on 30 September. The story of this mission fuelled Vangelis’ long-held passion for space and inspired him to create his first new studio album in 18 years. Vangelis’ music is often linked to themes of science, history and exploration. Alongside his Academy Award-winning score for ‘Chariots of Fire’, he has written for the films including ‘Antarctica’, ‘1492: Conquest of Paradise’, (...)
#Comets_and_culture #Fun_stuff ##CometLanding ##perihelion2015 #lander #philae
]]>Farewell, silent #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/07/26/farewell-silent-philae
Tomorrow, 27 July 2016 at 09:00 UTC / 11:00 CEST, the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on #Rosetta will be switched off. The ESS is the interface used for communications between #rosetta and the #lander, #philae, which has remained silent since 9 July 2015. Switching off the ESS is part of the preparations for Rosetta’s end of mission. By the end of July 2016, the spacecraft will be some 520 million km from the Sun, and will start facing a significant loss of power – about 4W per day. In order to continue scientific #Operations over the next two months and to maximise their return, it became necessary to start reducing the power consumed by the non-essential payload components on board. No signal has been received by Rosetta from Philae since last July and earlier this year (...)
]]>Artistic tributes to the #Rosetta mission
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/05/12/artistic-tributes-to-rosetta
Over the past two years, #rosetta has approached, reached and followed #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, collecting unprecedented images and other scientific data and dropping the #Philae lander on to its surface to perform in-situ measurements. While communicating the mission’s milestones, operational activities and scientific results via this blog and other social media channels, we have been pleased with the enormous impact that the mission had – and still has – on the public. Among the many comments, questions and feedback we have received over the months, there were also some special messages: they came from artists across the world, who had been especially impressed and inspired by the incredible adventure of Rosetta and #philae. They had spontaneously dedicated paintings, poems, (...)
#Comets_and_culture #Fun_stuff #art #comet #music #poetry #tribute
]]>#osiris data release: close orbits and #lander delivery
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/05/04/osiris-data-release-close-orbits-and-lander-delivery
The #Rosetta Downlink and Archive group are pleased to announce the release of over 4000 OSIRIS #Images to the Archive Image Browser and the Planetary #Science Archive. An Archive #science Review was successfully held in February resulting the need for some improvements in the data and metadata being delivered by the #rosetta #Instruments, some of which have been taken into account in this OSIRIS release. The release covers the period 16 September – 19 December 2014 and includes narrow- and wide-angle camera images from Rosetta’s close observation phase when the spacecraft was just 8 km from the surface of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as well as pre- and post-landing imagery. They show the astonishing detail of the #comet surface at close range, including images used to help characterise (...)
]]>#Philae status update
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/12/09/philae-status-update
Short video update from the #lander Control Center at DLR: #Videoupdate: the quest to re-establish contact with @Philae2014 continues... #lifeonacomet pic.twitter.com/0fp7Jrl8g2 — DLR - English (@DLR_en) December 9, 2015
#Landing #Operations #Rosetta ##CometLanding #philae #rosetta #trajectory
]]>Reminiscing about the week of #comet #Landing
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/11/17/reminiscing-about-the-week-of-comet-landing
This time last year saw the end of an extraordinary week at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Hundreds of journalists and reporters had gathered to witness an historic endeavour as on 12 November 2014 the #Rosetta orbiter deployed the lander #Philae on the surface of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this blog post, some of our media friends reflect on the events of that memorable week and on one evening in particular. Late in the evening on 14 November, two days after #philae had landed (and bounced) on the comet, three social-media eye-witnesses joined a small team of ESA communicators sitting just outside the mission control room at #esoc. Keeping an eye on Philae as it completed its scientific operations, they tweeted live what could have been the (...)
]]>#video: #Science highlights one year since comet landing
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/11/13/video-science-highlights-one-year-since-comet-landing
This film covers the most recent #science news from the #Rosetta mission, as well as selected scientific highlights from the last year.
#Comet_67P #Comets #Instruments #Philae #instruments #philae #rosetta
]]>#Rosetta and #Philae : one year since #Landing on a #comet
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/11/12/rosetta-and-philae-one-year-since-landing-on-a-comet
One year since #philae made its historic landing on a comet, mission teams remain hopeful for renewed contact with the #lander, while also looking ahead to next year’s grand finale: making a controlled impact of the #rosetta orbiter on the comet. This article is mirrored from the main ESA web portal. Rosetta arrived at #Comet_67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014, and after an initial survey and selection of a landing site, Philae was delivered to the surface on 12 November. After touching down in the Agilkia region as planned, Philae did not secure itself to the comet, and it bounced to a new location in Abydos. Its flight across the surface is depicted in a new animation, using data collected by Rosetta and Philae to reconstruct the lander’s rotation and attitude (Ed’s note: more (...)
#Images #Instruments #Operations #Science ##CometLanding #instruments #science #trajectory
]]>The sound of #Philae conducting #Science
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/11/12/the-sound-of-philae-conducting-science
Philae’s SESAME-CASSE ‘listened’ to the #lander’s MUPUS instrument hammer the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last November. Martin Knapmeyer from the German Aerospace Centre, DLR, tells us more. SESAME-CASSE is the Cometary Acoustic Surface Sounding Experiment located in the lander’s feet. It takes the form of three accelerometers, each of which records acceleration in three directions (one vertical and two horizontal). MUPUS comprises the Multi-Purpose Sensors for Surface and Subsurface #science – including the MUPUS penetrator that was activated towards the end of #philae’s first science sequence on 14 November 2014. It was recognized early in the preparation of both experiments that the hammering mechanism of MUPUS, which drives a thermal probe into the comet’s surface, would (...)
#Comets #Instruments #Operations ##CometLanding #instruments #landing_day
]]>Astronomy & Astrophysics: #Rosetta special issue
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/11/02/astronomy-astrophysics-rosetta-special-issue
A special issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics was published online on Friday, featuring 46 articles based on data collected by Rosetta and #Philae in the mission’s first year at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Topics covered include the comet’s shape and formation theories, the evolution and nature of its activity, the composition of the coma, and the coma’s interaction with the solar wind. For a full list of contents, click here. Many of these papers were published over the past few months, and several were already covered by news articles here on the ESA blog and/or the main ESA web portal; you can find the news items linked from the table of contents by clicking on the ‘press release’ button.
]]>The story behind the #Rosetta ‘claymation’
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/10/27/the-story-behind-the-rosetta-claymation
Earlier this month, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK, released a wonderful educational #video about the #rosetta Mission using ‘claymation’ – animated clay figures. It was a big hit with the Rosetta team and so we caught up with Elizabeth Avery, senior manager of Astronomy Education at the ROG and one of the minds behind the video, to learn more about how it was put together. The same team at the ROG has also since released a complementary video called Space Rocks, about asteroids, #Comets, meteors, and meteorites. You can watch both videos as part of this post. What made you choose to focus on the Rosetta mission for this video? We have a very long list of things we would love to make videos about, so it is always a huge challenge to choose just one topic. When we were first thinking of (...)
#Fun_stuff #Landing #Philae #Science ##CometLanding #comet #philae #science
]]>Understanding #Philae’s #wake-up: behind the scenes with the Philae team
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/09/11/understanding-philaes-wake-up-behind-the-scenes-with-the-philae-team
Since #Rosetta’s #lander Philae first woke up from hibernation and called ‘home’ on 13 June, the teams at the Lander Control Center (LCC – DLR), the Science #Operations and Navigation Center (SONC – CNES), the Max-Planck Institute (MPS – Göttingen) and the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (Wigner Research Centre for Physics – Budapest) have been working with ESA’s #rosetta Mission Operations Centre (RMOC – ESOC) and the Rosetta Science Ground Segment (RSGS – ESAC), and in close cooperation with the Philae and Rosetta scientists, to establish regular and predictable contacts with Philae, and to resume scientific measurements. This blog post has been written by Koen Geurts, Philae technical manager, and Cinzia Fantinati, Philae operations manager (both from the LCC at DLR), and gives a (...)
#Comet_67P #Instruments #Landing ##CometLanding #instruments #trajectory
]]>Celebrating a year at the #comet
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/08/06/celebrating-a-year-at-the-comet
This article is mirrored from the main ESA Web Portal ESA’s #Rosetta mission today celebrates one year at #Comet_67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, with its closest approach to the Sun now just one week away. It’s been a long but exciting journey for #rosetta since its launch in 2004, featuring Earth, Mars and two asteroid flybys before arriving at its ultimate destination on 6 August 2014. Over the following months, the mission became the first ever to orbit a comet and the first to soft land a probe – #Philae – on its surface. The mission teams have had to overcome many challenges in learning to fly in an unpredictable and sometimes inhospitable environment, and the spacecraft has returned a wealth of outstanding scientific data from this intriguing comet, spanning its interior, the dramatic surface (...)
#Arrival #Comets #CometWatch #Images #Instruments #media #On_this_day #Operations #Science ##CometLanding ##CometWatch ##RosettaAreWeThereYet ##WakeUpRosetta #flyby #instruments #lander #landing_day #philae #science #trajectory #wake-up
]]>#Science on the surface of a #comet
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/07/30/science-on-the-surface-of-a-comet
Complex molecules that could be key building blocks of life, the daily rise and fall of temperature, and an assessment of the surface properties and internal structure of the comet are just some of the highlights of the first scientific analysis of the data returned by #Rosetta’s #lander #Philae last November. This article is mirrored from the main ESA Web Portal. Early results from Philae’s first suite of scientific observations of #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were published today in a special edition of the journal #science. Data were obtained during the lander’s seven-hour descent to its first touchdown at the Agilkia #Landing site, which then triggered the start of a sequence of predefined experiments. But shortly after touchdown, it became apparent that Philae had rebounded and so a (...)
#Comets #Images #Instruments #Operations ##CometLanding #instruments #landing_day #timeline
]]>New communication with #Philae – commands executed successfully
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/07/10/new-communication-with-philae-commands-executed-successfully
This report is provided by the German Aerospace Center, DLR. The #philae #lander communicated with the #Rosetta orbiter again between 19:45 and 20:07 CEST on 9 July 2015 and transmitted measurement data from the COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission (CONSERT) instrument. Although the connection failed repeatedly after that, it remained completely stable for those 12 minutes. “This sign of life from Philae proves to us that at least one of the lander’s communication units remains operational and receives our commands,” said Koen Geurts, a member of the lander control team at DLR Cologne. The mood had been mixed over the last few days; Philae had not communicated with the team in the DLR Lander Control Center (LCC) since 24 June 2015. After an initial test command to turn (...)
]]>#lander update – 6 July
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/07/06/lander-update-6-july
Is there any news from @Philae2014 on Comet #67P? Video update from the LCC: (FW) #Philae #Rosetta pic.twitter.com/7tENTWrAd1 — DLR - English (@DLR_en) July 6, 2015
]]>Video update from #lander Control Centre
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/07/01/video-update-from-lander-control-centre
As tweeted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) yesterday, a mini status update direct from the Lander Control Center in Cologne. In short, the teams are still working hard on trying to re-establish contact with the lander. Update on status of @Philae2014 on #67P directly from #LCC in Cologne (video) #lifeonacomet (FW) pic.twitter.com/sEuNeFL7l3 — DLR - English (@DLR_en) June 30, 2015
#Landing #Philae #Rosetta ##CometLanding #rosetta #trajectory
]]>#Rosetta and #Philae in contact again
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/19/rosetta-and-philae-in-contact-again
ESA and its #rosetta mission partners have confirmed that another communication link has been made between Rosetta and #philae today. The signal was transmitted from Rosetta to ESA’s space #Operations centre in Darmstadt and received at 15:37 CEST on 19 June, and confirmed by the Lander Control Centre at the German Space Centre, DLR. A second signal was received at 15:54 CEST. The downlink was stable; the two contacts received by Rosetta lasted two minutes each. Both delivered numerous packets of lander housekeeping and status data, 185 in total, which are still being analysed at the time of this writing. No science data were anticipated or received. “We are very happy to have received signals from the lander again, and we are all working hard towards establishing a robust link between (...)
]]>#rosetta Mission at the Paris Air and Space Show
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/16/rosetta-mission-at-the-paris-air-and-space-show
ESA is at the International Paris Air and Space Show, Le Bourget, this week. Tomorrow, Wednesday 17 June, a press briefing will be dedicated to the Rosetta Mission. Members of the Rosetta and #philae teams will provide an update on the mission, present some of the latest results, and outline what still lies ahead. Speakers include: Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Adviser, ESA; Elsa Montagnon, Deputy Rosetta Flight Director, ESA; Philippe Gaudon, CNES Philae project manager, CNES; Jean-Pierre Bibring, Lead Lander Scientist, IAS Orsay. (Line up may be subject to change.) Watch live on Wednesday at 09:30-10:45 CEST, here. More information about ESA at Le Bourget can be found here.
]]>#Philae wake-up triggers intense planning
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/15/philae-wake-up-triggers-intense-planning
The receipt of signals from #Rosetta’s #philae #lander on 13 June after 211 days of hibernation marked the start of intense activity. In coordination with its mission partners, ESA teams are working to juggle #rosetta’s flight plan to help with renewed lander science investigations. Philae has woken up after seven months in hibernation on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Hidden by shadows, Philae shut down on 15 November 2014 at 00:36 GMT after completing its main science #Operations sequence on the comet when the primary battery expired as expected after about 60 hours. Since March 2015, when Philae’s environmental conditions started to improve with higher surface temperatures and better illumination, the orbiter’s receiver had been turned on periodically to listen for signals from the lander (...)
]]>How we heard from #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/15/how-we-heard-from-philae
I picked up the phone and said: ’This has to be bad news. We’ve got a safe mode, don’t we?’ He replied, ’Well, maybe not. Maybe it’s good news!’
#Estrack/DSN #Fun_stuff #Operations #goldstone #hubault #relay #timeline #urbaneck #wake-up
]]>#Rosetta’s lander #Philae wakes up from hibernation
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/14/rosettas-lander-philae-wakes-up-from-hibernation
Rosetta’s lander #philae is out of hibernation! The signals were received at ESA’s European Space #Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June. More than 300 data packets have been analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). “Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available,” explains DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec. “The lander is ready for operations.” For 85 seconds Philae “spoke” with its team on ground, via Rosetta, in the first contact since going into hibernation in November. When analysing the status data it became clear that Philae also must have been awake earlier: "We have also received historical data - so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us (...)
]]>#Rosetta and #Philae find #comet not magnetised
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/14/rosetta-and-philae-find-comet-not-magnetised
This new result was just presented at EGU2015 and is published in #Science Express today. The text is mirrored from our news story on the main ESA web portal. Measurements made by #rosetta and #philae during the probe’s multiple landings on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show that the comet’s nucleus is not magnetised. Studying the properties of a comet can provide clues to the role that magnetic fields played in the formation of Solar System bodies almost 4.6 billion years ago. The infant Solar System was once nothing more than a swirling disc of gas and dust but, within a few million years, the Sun burst into life in the centre of this turbulent disc, with the leftover material going into forming the asteroids, #Comets, moons and planets. The dust contained an appreciable fraction of iron, (...)
#Comet_67P #Instruments #Landing ##CometLanding #instruments #lander #science #trajectory
]]>Next listening opportunities for #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/10/next-listening-opportunities-for-philae
Based on the latest report published by the German Aerospace Centre. Despite #Rosetta’s new trajectory scheme, the orbiter is still able to listen out for its #lander #philae, in case it has woken up from hibernation. Thus a new listening window opens on Sunday, 12 April. “The communication unit on the orbiter will be turned on around the clock,” says Dr Stephan Ulamec, lander manager at DLR. “Most likely, Philae will wake up in May or June, but we don’t want to miss the moment if it should have enough energy and a sufficiently high operating temperature to wake up earlier.” To wake up and listen for signals from Rosetta, Philae must have at least 5.5 watts and an operating temperature above –45 degrees Celsius. With a bit more energy, around 19 watts, Philae would be able to return the ‘call’. (...)
]]>Waiting patiently for #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/03/20/waiting-patiently-for-philae
For the past eight days, #Rosetta has been sending signals to #philae and listening for a response, but the #lander has not yet reported back. This report is provided by the German Aerospace Center, DLR. Perhaps it is still too cold for the Philae lander to #Wake_up on #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Maybe its power resources are not yet sufficient to send a signal to the team at the DLR Lander Control Center. On 12 March 2015, the #rosetta orbiter began to send signals to the lander and listen for a response, but Philae has not yet reported back. “It was a very early attempt; we will repeat this process until we receive a response from Philae,” says DLR Project Manager Stephan Ulamec. “We have to be patient.” On 20 March 2015 at 05:00 CET, the communication unit on the Rosetta orbiter was (...)
]]>#Philae: reflections and hopes
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/03/13/philae-reflections-and-hopes
Lead #lander scientist Jean-Pierre Bibring (IAS, Orsay, France) reflects on the events surrounding comet #Landing four months ago, and shares his hopes for #philae’s reactivation. For years we dreamt of visiting a comet, to perform in situ analyses of a pristine Solar System object. For Philae, the first giant challenge was to land. We always knew that achieving our scientific goals would require us to face extreme conditions, so cold and unpredictable would be the comet environment at such distances from the Sun – nearly 450 million kilometres around #landing day. Our mission was expected to present enormous risks: the reality was even tougher. All scientific #Operations planned for the descent up to 10 hours after touchdown had been preloaded, ready to be run in an automated fashion. They (...)
#Comet_67P #Instruments ##CometLanding #instruments #landing_day #science
]]>Waiting for a signal from #Philae
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/03/10/waiting-for-a-signal-from-philae
This week, #Rosetta will begin listening for signs that #philae is still “alive”. This report is provided by the German Aerospace Center, DLR. It would be very lucky if a signal were to be received from Philae at 05:00 CET on 12 March 2015. The #lander finally came to rest on 12 November 2014 in a rather shaded location on #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and it needs to receive sufficient energy before it can #Wake_up and begin communicating. This is, however, the first possibility to receive a signal from Philae; therefore, the communication unit on the #rosetta orbiter will be switched on to call the lander. “Philae currently receives about twice as much solar energy as it did in November last year,” says Lander Project Manager Stephan Ulamec from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum (...)
]]>Where is #Philae? When will it wake up?
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/01/30/where-is-philae-when-will-it-wake-up
These are the two most popular questions currently being asked of the mission – especially on our social media channels – and ones that we will try to answer in this post, including inputs from the OSIRIS team, and from the Lander Control Centre at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Where is #philae? Ever since Philae touched down on #Comet_67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the final time on 12 November – it is thought to have come into contact with the #comet’s surface a total of four times including the final #Landing – the search has been on to identify it in images. While the CONSERT instrument has helped to narrow down a 350 x 30 m ‘landing strip’ on Comet 67P/C-G’s smaller lobe, a dedicated search in OSIRIS images has so far not been able to confirm the little lander’s final location. Philae’s (...)
#Instruments #Rosetta ##CometLanding #rosetta #trajectory #wake-up
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