With its batteries depleted and not enough sunlight available to recharge, Philae has fallen into ‘idle mode’ for a potentially long silence. In this mode, all instruments and most systems on board are shut down.
“Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence,” says DLR’s Stephan Ulamec, Lander Manager, who was in the Main Control Room at ESOC tonight.
“This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered.”
Contact was lost at 00:36 UTC / 01:36 CET, not long before the scheduled communication loss that would have happened anyway as Rosetta orbited below the horizon.
From now on, no contact would be possible unless sufficient sunlight falls on the solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up.
The possibility that this may happen was boosted this evening when mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander’s main body, to which the solar panels are fixed. This may have exposed more panel area to sunlight.
The next possible communication slot begins on 15 November at about 10:00 UTC / 11:00 CET. The orbiter will listen for a signal, and will continue doing so when its orbit enables communication visibility in the future.
However, given the low recharge current available from the solar cells, it is considered unlikely that contact with Philae will be established in the coming days.
The hugely successful Rosetta mission will continue, as the spacecraft tracks comet 67P/C-G on its journey to the Sun. Rosetta is the first spacecraft to rendezvous with and orbit a comet and has already returned incredible scientific data.
Follow the mission via https://rosetta.esa.int
Rosetta flight controllers and Philae mission managers in Main Control Room at ESOC, just after loss of contact with Philae. Credit: Steven Young/Astronomy Now
Discussion: 343 comments
Thank you everyone! Good luck with the science!
Long live Philae!
Agree 100 percent, thank you to all involved keep exploring….to quote a future Captain of the Enterprise, “make it so…” And to all involved the Force is with you….
Thank you, Philae and all your heroic friends at ESA and around the world.
Well done, well done! what an amazingly rewarding job / vocation you all have (back to project beginning) and how great is has been to join along in your ride.
I’m sure the light of inspiration has been passed on to the next generation. May the off-planet people of tomorrow look back on missions such as these. Onward to the future!
A quick shout out to the Beagle 2 team from >10 yrs ago who’s result was not as glorious but I remember feeling similar excitement for.
Good night Philae!
Congratulations. Truly amazing work.
Hearty congratulations to all involved in this wonderful mission. I am just a bystander, but totally enthralled!
Congratulations for this amazing mission! What an incredible little robot and an incredibly skilled team! I’m so looking forward to the results of all the measurements which have been made – at AGU I guess.
Have a nice rest to you all 🙂 Cheers!
Fantastic job everyone! We can’t thank you all enough for letting us take part in this amazing adventure.
I am so excited to hear about the scientific data Philae collected! Does the First Science Sequence include all data gathered from all experiments Philae conducted including the drilling?
Sweet dreams. We’ll catch you in the other side…
🙂
–Bill
Sad that it happened so soon, but still amazing that it’s there at all.
As the comet approaches the sun, is there a chance that the stronger sunshine or changes in the comets shape or orientation will allow the lander to get enough power to wake up again?
There is a change, the team has also confirmed that. However of course we would have to get very lucky, because it would need a lot more sunlight exposure. The solar power can’t directly charge the battery, it has to be heated up first, which also requires sufficient energy.
But yes, it’s possible, let’s just hope for the best
Another question – I’ve never understood why Rosetta has to orbit so far away from the comet – could you explain this please.
Also, would it be possible to move the orbiter into a closer orbit so that the lander can be spotted?
I believe it’s due to gravity fluctuations being so high. Remember, it’s GM1M2/r^2, integrated over the shape of the comet, which means the gravitational force varies less the father you are. It could also have something to do with a potential coma as it gets closer to the sun.
Since Comet 67P is so irregular, the force of gravity experienced by Rosetta varies much more than if orbiting round a spherical or less irregular body.
These variations are more pronounced the closer to the comet you go.
Hence for a regular and predictable orbit, it’s better to stay quite a way out, otherwise the variations would make an orbit too variable and perhaps unstable.
i think the orbital distance where gravity is overcome by sustenance and constancy of motion without thrust force is set more or less.
there is a planned 8 km orbit… Moving closer gets increasingly hazardous, due to ejecta and gas leaving the nucleus to form the coma
Rosetta is at a safe distance from the gas jets and dust the comet will increasingly expel during it’s journey to the sun.
The gravity of the comet is very small, the distance is according one of Keppler’s law in relation with the gravityforce and the speed of Rosetta
v^2/g = R or R^3 = GMT^2/(4pi^2)
R = distance rosetta-comet
v= speed rosetta
g = gravity comet
G= gravityconstant
M= mass rosetta
T = time rosetta needs for one passage around comet
Only a very small speed could allow Rosetta making a smaller distance
So are you saying Rosetta is really in Orbit around the comet because of the comets gravity? Then it would continue to travel with the comet until the comet “melts”?
I thought Rosetta is on a parallel course with the comet and maneuvered around it with the help of thrusters.
Rosettas distance is a function of its mass and speed in relation to the comets mass.
Congratulations Team, absolutely outstanding work. Thank you for sharing!
I wish I was there to manually turn the lander toward the Sun !
IT was a Long Travel into unknown regions… Just the fact of Travel there and take picture of your foot up in the cosmic Air is much more that anyone has ever done. Be proud of what you achieved and let the Little guy Take a nap … He deserves it. 🙂
Thank you Team Philae for all you hard work!
Bonjour à toute l’équipe, ce petit message pour vous dire Merci, Merci de m’avoir fait rêver et frissonner depuis ses dernier jours. Grâce à vous j’ai retrouvé mon coeur d’enfant et je sais aujourd’hui que rien n’est impossible et que sinon nos rêves, rien ne nous arrêtera… Merci pour votre courage vous êtes à la hauteur des Titans…
Emmanuel from Belgium.
I am missing Philae. Such a cute guy.. Pls find the location of Philae as I want to see the lander on our comet.
Good night Philae.. see you soon buddy.
If we waited ten long years to achieve this journey,a few days to let philae recharge her batteries will be well worth it…congratulations from Texas..
Read the first sentence of the blog again. There’s not enough light for the batteries to recharge.
The sixth and seventh paragraphs provide some information that you might find useful.
From this article alone, it’s unclear. Batteries’ recharging patterns and deep-discharge tolerances vary. But the first sentence here might mean just that it cannot be recharged for continuous operation as planned. My impression is that operators hope that over time enough light will be acquired to bring the batteries back on line for another short period. I doubt they have sent batteries that cannot be recharged from zero, or if so, that they have not built in some shut-down procedure to prevent that. All in all, not bad for equipment built when most of us were still using dial-up.
Well, I posted that too soon. Much more about the battery situation and alternative (if unlikely) scenarios at this other blog post: https://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/lander-battery-voltage-falling-fast/
… Yet !
We hope.
Probably not at the moment, but that is not known for certain, and in any case may change. On the basis of what we have been told, I would actually be slightly surprised if some further contact is not achieved at some point.
RipRock – There isn’t *now*. There are two different ways the sunlight will or could change. The comet could rotate towards the Sun in a way that exposes the lander more to sunlight. In any case, the comet *will* get closer to the Sun in the coming months. There’s still some question whether the lander will be able to wake back up once the light improves enough, but the sunlight will likely not be the issue.
I hope & I pray
Nice job Phillea. Sleep well and wake up soon.
this is a great event for the mankind, and i wish all the successes for scientists who are involving regad this mission. hope our “PHILAE” will get enough sunlight for recharge the batteries and serve for mankind.
Bonne nuit petit robot. And please wake up ! We want more…
I have a good feeling about this.
A wonderful achievement and great work by all the teams involved ESA/NASA.
I hope Philae will wake up and continue to enthrall us.
Sleep well little one and wake up refreshed. 🙂
Thank you guys!
The lander was a bonus and you managed to get some data from it. Congrats on a successful mission.
Why can not people join together for the sake of science? We all live on the planet and know so little about our history. Thank you very much, you did a great job.
Greetings from Russia.
Well said. We respect the Soviet pioneers as well !
Coming from greed and scarcity prevents many humans from perceiving and pursuing global opportunity of abundance. The more you learn the vaster your horizons.
It is truly sad. Maybe some day these programs will get all they need. Unfortunately there are too few people willing to look beyond potentially their own lifetimes to ensure stability in the future.
Rosetta is an amazing achievement, and a great step forward into everything outside our tiny, tiny part of the galaxy.
“Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence,” says DLR’s Stephan Ulamec.
I take it by that statement, after this such an amazing achievement, that the objective to establish if comets were responsible for life on earth.. means we will not know now, unless it regains power to transmit the info?
It DID transmit the info it gathered, to Rosetta.
Comets are to small to fill the oceans, water comes from other sources. Great job ESA!!
Actually, we can still find that out if Philae stays asleep. The data from Philae’s instruments has been downloaded to Earth by Rosetta, and is analyzed by scientists here. Scientific results should be coming over the next months or so 🙂
What makes you come to that conclusion? My underatanding is that they have cycled all science experiments and gathered all data, they are only going to miss out on repeat measurements?
Hi James. More relevant experiments at First Block.
Great work and wonderful achievemeny by all the teams involved ESA/NASA.
I hope Philae will wake up and continue to enthrall us.
Sleep well little one and wake up refreshed. 🙂
A truly incredible feat for all mankind ….. An amazing bit of pure science and technology ….. Well done….
Any plans to put Rosetta in a “Chury-stationary” orbit? That would be at an orbital radius of about 3.3km, which is probably too close for comfort.
“Stationary “orbits apply to rotating spherical bodies, and are not actually stationary, but just pace the rotation of the body in question. Obviously, or comet isn’t round and I’m not sure if has a regular rotation or not.
Philae has explored into uncharted (frozen) waters. It has done what no lander has done before. And we have pictures from the surface. No matter what happens to Philae now, it already has an incredible legacy.
Congratulations from Brazil! YOU guys were amazing! Nice job!
Good night Philae, after a long journey find your rest in your new home. Miss you…
Many thousand thanks to all those who brought Philae there, to 67P/Tschuri. Following the your mission’ climax with the landing certainly was one of the greatest events in my lifetime.
Heiko
Good night Philae. See you soon! 😉 A huge “thank you” to the Esa team who made this possibile. Keep us dreaming for a even brighter future for space exploration!
Alessio, from Verona (Italy)
Maybe Philae was not so happy to be exposed to the sunlight and die after a couple of months from overheating, so it decided to find a shelter somewhere, take some rest before resuming gently its mission. Well done Philae, you are the best 🙂
Is it possible that as the comet travels closer to the sun that the comet could rotate enough so the sun will hit the solar panels for longer periods of time? Will the ESA team be constantly monitoring Philae to see if it receives more energy even after long periods of inactivity?
Parabéns a equipe da ESA pela sua dedicação a este trabalho magnífico. E durma bem PHILAE, esperamos ansiosos que acorde logo!
I’m making a note here…
HUGE SUCCESS!
Well done team. Well done Philae and Rosetta.
Australia loves you!
I would like to say felt as though I was witnessing history that first day when it landed. I had to pinch myself that I was sitting there in my chair, and mankind just landed on a comet! the future is here. Watching all the press conferences, you got to know the actual people involved and they are all great people. The poor englishman today had to humble himself over of all things, a shirt. apparently he offended tons of women by wearing a shirt that depicted sexy women on it. How horrible! here we are with one of the greatest ever accomplishments of mankind in human history, and this poor guy had to apologize for a shirt he wore during an interview. I think it’s really great that germans, french, englishman and others all work together as europeans. what an accomplishment, as the englishman said today, words are not enough..
Mankind not ‘europeans’this is collective effort!It landed on a black dark comet I guess!
A todos los que trabajaron por todos estos años en este GRANDIOSO proyecto un gracias de corazón por hacernos soñar en un mundo mejor, más unido, en el que personas de todos los colores, idiomas, razas se unen para cooperar. Gracias por enseñarnos nuevamente que no tenemos todas las respuestas pero las vamos encontrando poco a poco. Gracias por este viaje tan emocionante y asombroso, por la Ciencia, la Razón y por su coraje en perseguir ese sueño. En Agosto, estoy seguro, habrá buenas noticias!!
Comet Dreams!!!
A todos los que trabajaron por todos estos años en este GRANDIOSO proyecto un gracias de corazón por hacernos soñar en un mundo mejor, más unido, en el que personas de todos los colores, idiomas, razas se unen para cooperar. Gracias por enseñarnos nuevamente que no tenemos todas las respuestas pero las vamos encontrando poco a poco. Gracias por este viaje tan emocionante y asombroso, por la Ciencia, la Razón y por su coraje en perseguir ese sueño. En Agosto, estoy seguro, habrá buenas noticias!!
Greetings from Colombia!
Great job guys!! Meawhile we can try to send Jeb to fix it. Best regards
How long before someone writes a Rosetta/Philae mod….? I give it a week.
Congratulations! This has been a historic human and technoogical achievement. I cannot express how, frankly, envious I am of your accomplishment and your opportunity to participate directly in such a fantastic adventure. Thanks to all of you from those of us who still believe in the power of the human spirit and need for exploration.
Again Congratulations, and Well Done!
Thanks to all for this incredible achievement! This has excited me like I was as a kid watching the first moon landing. The presentation of all the information has been fantastic, too!
I can’t even wrap my mind around the amount of knowledge, work and skill it took to do this, but it gives me great hope for the world.
I hope Philae wakes up to tell us more!
Thank you guys for an exciting week. I hope we will hear again from Philae because it would be nice to keep the excitement going. I also hope a lot of kids got the space bug and chose a career in science.
You guys rock.
These days have been a rush!!! Science bitc#!!
Humankind at its very best! Truly heroes! An out of this world mission carried out with passion. Congratulations for the extraordinary feat!
Amazing achievement, so much has been learnt already. Let the little guy have his well deserved nap. I sincerely hope he wakes up again.
Bonne nuit Philae, un beau petit minion.
عد عند اشراقة الشمس النيرة أيها الفتى المغامر. في رعاية المولى
I got Google to translate…
“When counting the preeminence of the sun illuminating my boy adventurer. In the care of the Lord”
Very nice indeed. Thank you, Optimism.
What we need is a good old fashioned rope (or a tether, as we would day more fancifully). Lower Rosetta to a much lower orbit, and throw this “Lasso” around Philae and lift it out from where it is and place right in the sunshine and re-anchor. Why wasn’t Rosetta lowered before releasing Philae? It could have gently been almost placed on to the comet surface had Rosetta been at say 5 km or even lower height.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA_J_3xyt8g
Fantastic work….truly amazing
Such a thrill to watch this spellbinding scientific achievement unfold! I’m anxious for the science results, and further contacts with Philae. Fantastic job and multi-country collaboration, all of you!
The valiant Philae can sleep peacefully with his brilliant sister in orbit. Infinite thanks for this achievement and for the trajectory linking our past and our future. Jane and Armand applauding you all from Vienna and Antwerp.
C’est incroyable, j’ai suivi (et je suis encore) toute cette mission depuis le détachement de Philae de l’orbiteur Rosetta. L’émerveillement! C’est super d’avoir accompli ça, et le meilleur reste encore à venir avec toutes les données qui sont en route.
Bravo de Québec, Canada!
More comets!
More missions!
More landers!
Wow! Let’s do this again!
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Congratulations on a truly remarkable science and engineering achievement. It has been inspiring to follow this adventure with my daughter. Keep up the great work and continue to share with us all the exciting info that Philae and Rosetta have discovered.
Thank you
Quello che siete riusciti a fare (e continuerete a fare con Rosetta) é comunque incredibile.
Per il piccolo Philae, teniamo le dita incrociate.
GRAZIE ESA!!!
What you were able to do (and will keep doing with Rosetta) is in any case incredible.
For little Philae, lets keep fingers crossed.
THANK YOU ESA!!!
Congratulations all. One question, is it possible that #67P will rotate to place Philae toward the Sun sometime in the near future?
Looking at the trajectory, the closest point is August 15, 2015
https://www.raumfahrer.net/news/images/flugbahn_rosetta_a.jpg
with this path between the orbits of earth and mars, one can expect a higher level of insolation. In addition, the plane of rotation will remain and, depending on how this position of the sun shifts in Philae’s apparent sky, more electricity may flow from the panels. Someone from ESA would be able to speak to this with greater authority to see if there is any possible hope. We know that Philae can endure the dark, so lets anticipate a surprise in 2015, in fact, if the changes in attitude produce enough extra sun on the panels, Philae may well wake up before that??
I am sure ESA will watch for this.
Well done and great results for all your hard work. It has been amazing to follow and I hope this will not be the end of this fantastic mission.
Fantastic what has been achieved so far!!
Perhaps a rest will benefit ALL involved…soak it up!
Guys, congratulations on an amazing few days. This is the equivalent of our generation landing on the moon but this time the science is of a more fundamental nature – ie did life on earth come from comets bringing water.
You guys are true celebrities of our time.
Yes, as amazing (and fundamental to further progress) as the Moon missions have been, there’s little left to gleam from them unless we want to try some colonization testing or something.
The purpose of the Rosetta program is much more noble, not settling some competition between two nations establishing hegemony on much of the world’s population, but exploring some celestial objects which we don’t know very much about. Very noble, and very forward thinking. It has to happen at some point, it’s a tremendous step.
I hope all the kids nowadays can appreciate this, and that I am jaded when I suspect that special effects in movies have colored their perception of what amazing achievements in space truly are.
Le Petit Prince really does live on a comet! Philae has done exceptional things for science and for mankind. The science done here makes the Apollo Mission look like a ride in a horse and carriage, and yet all space missions owe their success to the previous missions. So far, Rosetta and Philae have set the high jump bar very, very high and yet paradoxically have set the new theme from Ambition to Inspiration. The entire space community is incredibly inspired by this audacious and ambitious leap of scientific discovery. Super exciting stuff! Congratulations to all of the members and contributors to the Rosetta mission!
would be placed in the lander (Philae) emitting infra red light which can mark their position on a photo taken by satellite (Rosetta)
Philae is my hero!
Well done, ESA! I can’t wait to hear about the results of these experiments. Thank you for stretching the human mind onto the surface of the comet. We have all grown a little.
To the Rosetta/Philae Crew,
Bravo
I feel so very proud of the human race at this moment, thanks to your incredible spirit and such a beautifully engineered project.
I dedicate this poem to you,
INFINITY’S TRICK
On this implausibly small and lost coalescence of dust particles and elements
An anthology of molecules has improbably conspired
To make us up
Such curious breathing, walking, conscious spirits
For such an insignificant period of time
Have we stared up outward at the dark and brilliant skies
At the sanctum of our existence
At the refuge of our lives
In this, our tiny portion
Of this space and time
We have probed our thoughts
And studied our questions
Relentlessly
And persistently
A flock of theorists faithfully trying
To untangle this trick of life
Uncertainties come to complex things
But initiate reprise
Despite
Infinities of questions
And pluralities of Pi
Search we still the resolution to
the microscopic glues
of conglomerates of atoms
and fundamental loops
Uncoil the threads that bind the spheres
Of matter, space and time
An implausible world of inexplicable strands
That generate you and I
Adorn we now this surface full
as though we may be ants
Transforming these constituents
Of water, rock and plants
Search bone and skull
For ancient skills
Once taken to the tomb
Returned to us, this knowledge may
Return us to the womb
Oh how I wish to live beyond this realm
Out from this infinitesimal speck
To drift through space among the stars
And grasp Infinity’s trick
Ian William Dunlop 02/03/2011
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Littleprince.JPG
Congratulations folks, a helluva accomplishment, I’m really looking forward to all the science that will come from this. (And thanks also to the funders and taxpayers – your will to excel matters too).
What an example of the best that humankind can do when we work together – there’s even kiwi technology up there, waiting for its next chance.
Kia kaha Philae!
Congratulations to ESA for the wonderful work you have done. An inspiration to all thinking and curious people.
Your quest for Stardust in a comet is simply poetic 🙂 Thank you for the magnificent moments you are providing to History. Cheers from Portugal!
May I ask why the philae engineers chose not use a nuclear battery for the lander? I think that would have been a safer bet. I really hope this is not the last time we hear from philae. An extended mission to study the comet surface would be such a treat for us all.
A hearty, “Well Done” to all who posted here. What a great community!
Congratulations!
What a superb and astonishing accomplishment. I applaud everyone who helped on this mission. I also hope this will sow a seed of intrigue and curiosity for scientific studies concerning space and its exploration to all the youth. After watching the movie “Interstellar” a few days ago, this was just marvelous, and its timing perfect.
Great job everyone!
Hope it catches some sun soon.
If there are any Clangers living there perhaps one of them will plug it into a recharging point for you!
In a world saddened by so much conflict. It is heartening to hear about such a fantastic achievement by a dedicated team of Scientists. Well done to everyone of you!
The thruster did not work and both harpoons did fail, what is their common error scenario? Is it a failure of the hardware or is it a software bug?
be patien long trip to perihelion he will wake up
Congratulation to all your team. You achieved a milestone in space flight and the ultimate landing. I am keeping my finger crossed for you all that Philae will receive enough sunlight to power it cells in the future so you can proceed with your experiments. Will keep hoping for you all. Well done.
incredible feat….shot in the dark and a bulls-eye…
So much for the dirty snowball theory, thanks! Congratulations! Looking forward to more…
🙂
Final question: did SD2 take only one sample?
Exploration from the point of view of the clangers (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HArUmqqiL0s
Amazing science even for an African! I could not stop contemplating it all night. The pictures are stunning for the imagination, I guess the challenge for the mind is real considering that we were some apes back then and continue to make our progress. Who knows what the future holds except for the inquiring minds that try!
congratulation from BANGLADESH to the whole team of Philae.
wish it come back alive at it approach to sun closer.
Good night Philae.
🙂
Could Rosetta be positioned and angled to reflect enough light from its solar panels onto Philae to keep alive?
Amazing science, well done to all concerned, truly inspiring.
I was wondering the same thing. Surely it could be positioned to reflect sunlight towards Philae off its body or solar cells every rotation. Might not be much each time – but surely enough to build up a charge?
I am sure the boffins have considered it – maybe not enough reflection, or too hard to get the right orbit with the sun and Philae being in the right spot.
By continuing to examine the comet, is my belief that Rosetta has a unique ability to differentiate between the Gravitation Squeezing proposed solution for the volcanic activity found on Io, and the Gravitational Thermodynamic Effect.
Rosetta and its comet are being accelerated by the Sun’s gravitational effect (not pull) and cannot be regarded as being subjected to gravitational squeezing.
Even if the lander fails to produce startling new physics, Rosetta has the opportunity to validate my belief that a Gravitational Thermodynamic Effect will result in the comet generating internal heat (more than supplied from the Sun) whilst approaching the Sun, and undergo excess cooling than is expected as it travels away from the Sun. The comet’s overall magnetic field will increase on approach to the Sun, and diminish proportionally to the increase experienced during approach to the Sun, when it is travelling away from the Sun.
The comet’s orbit takes it little closer to the Sun than the Earth approaches the Sun. Therefore, if Philae is destroyed by heat, the greater magnitude of heat will be generated by the gravitational thermodynamic effect and not by heat only radiated from the Sun.
When and during the comet’s closest approach to the Sun, (no longer being accelerated by the gravitational effect of the Sun) it, Rosetta and Philae will relatively suddenly commence to cool.
Regards and best wishes for Rosetta and Team
Congratulations to the Rosetta and Philae teams! Brilliant historical week!
Thanks to all of you.
Emma from Finland
It is incredible and fascinating! Nevertheless, a question: Was it a most suitable place to land Philae or was it a failure? I hope in the nearest future this – possible – fault turns an advance in terms of thermal control!
I know this is not the fault of ESA and that overall this is a learning experience for next time.
While everyone at ESA may be positive, upbeat and calling this mission a success, I can’t help but feel this mission was a failure.
Let’s see, we’ll built a lander, travel millions of miles over a period of 10 years, only to have a max of 60 hours of battery. It’s a real shame.
Again, I don’t lay any blame because you can’t control how this device would bounce but I certainly see this as a big failure and disappointment.
Hi Carmen. Seems to be the rule in space investigation that first try fails, miserably fails. The higher the unknowns, higher the risk. On Philae the bets were very low, from budget itself. (Didn’t want to say to Philae team). Even by design Philae is not quite that much. It is literately a ‘trow away’. We the followers of the mission are amazed that he made it, after all. AND completed the first Science Block. AND still has not said Good Bye 🙂
The reason that mission fails is due to the ability that humans tend to forget that nature never forgives errors. On the other hand it is this ability to try and make errors that developed life to make us what we are right now and also help to make space missions improve in the future. Development has its sacrifices.
Congrats, mission so far so good. Will you be able to guesstimate an age of the comet? Can’t wait to see more!
Seems that ‘due’ to the ‘rabbit’ jump Scientists could say something about the age. Hope there is something on these data packets 🙂
Should I say ‘rabid’ jump? 😉
Why? Why waiting to the last minute for rotating the lander? What could be worse than what we had!!! Shouldn’t you show more bravery?
Bravery has been shown all the time. Philae teams the most.
Bravely Philae ignored his own situation and started his mission.
Great work guys!!!
I think that you deserve some sleep now…
What an amazing story, thanks for sharing!
It is like at the World Soccer Championship: WE landed on a comet! We, our team, Mankind! Thanks, great performance, Keep going!
This is a pity. I wish in all our interests, rapid light for Philae
What a wonderful opportunity to learn about life on a comet. An incredible chase and catchup, despite the delaying challenges, and touchdown(s) – simply incredible!
Thanks for your transparency and sharing of this lifetime event. Well done, Indeed!
rosetta can not to realign and to work like a mirrow to reflect the sunshine to philae????
Stunning performance, Philae. Hope to hear from U soon ! Great Job, ESA !
THANK YOU a million times for what you guys did. Yesterday night suspense was Just unbeleivable.
Tale your time to analysé the data and share :D.
A big thank you for the coommunication zone by the teams about those events. GREAT GRAT JOB
Way to boldly go, many congratulations on what continues to be an amazing mission.
Such an great achievement, very impressed with what a large team of humans can do. Could you look at the middle east problem next 😉 It’s a shame the UK press has to focus on the negatives when there are so many positives.
Will the additional mass of the lander alter the course of the comet such that you can measure the deviation?
Thank you all at ESA and every other agency who is part of Rosetta. You have given us the greatest scientific adventure (sorry Beagle! sorry Apollo programme, sorry ISS) and you will continue to give us great science for a lot longer. Every single one of you is a science rockstar! Thank you for the inspiration. I had not been born at the time of Apollo 11 but I can teach my son that he turned 6 just in time for Philae to land on a comet. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sweet sleep, Philae! Here is hoping you will wake in a few months time. Keep up the good work, Rosetta, and please look after Philae.
Please don’t say this. Sad news. Any chance to recharge? But you people did a great job. At least we could land on a comet. You are amazing people.
Hi Khader. Chance of recharge when things go warmer and sun power stronger. (Not if the resting point is a jet hole).
Am I the only one disappointed and frustrated by this result? Yes, it was an amazing job getting Rosetta there and Philae onto the surface. But think of all the data we’re missing because of the multitude of engineering failures on the landers systems for attaching it to the comet.
Some people clearly did a great job but equally some people didn’t. We shouldn’t be afraid to say this.
Also, to read ESA congratulating itself in every public utterance is somewhat distasteful. I understand PR is important but they sound like politicians trying to win votes.
Can’t wait for the data from philae to be announced. Let’s just hope it’s as extensive as the ESA is claiming.
Proud and very glad this mission is such a succes. Landing on the moon was easier haha.
Now waiting what the scientific data will learn us.
Congrats ESA and everybody involved. At least this is good news besides all bad things in this evil world…
Team, I am not going to spare you tough words of disappointment. All this jubilation and exaltation doesn’t make sense knowing that the landing sequence and the operations after the landing didn’t live to the expectations. During the landing there were two or three things that should work properly and none of them worked as expected. There was no place for jubilation and hugs but there should be concerns and brainstorming, not staged teleconferences. There were several options for salvaging the mission but instead nothing was attempted and the team went ahead with sacrificing the mission and collecting the possible minimum. There was a patient who needed a surgery and instead you let it die. What a shame!
Hi Emil. A space drone is a soldier.
Changing the scale, 67p is the pyramid and Philae is the Pharaoh. Rosetta was the ship, Philae the captain and 67p the south pole. Or,..
Let’s rescue the litte guy next time around.
Bravo, ESA. Godpseed Phil… may the sun shine yet on your mission.
If Philae is getting a quarter of the sunlight it needs, could it not charge its battery slowly and occasionally wake up?
Sorry about the language…. but this is just un-f%$#ing-believable. How the f%$# do you land a spacecraft on a rock 6 billion kilometres away? How do you even find that little f%$#$er after a 10 year journey? This is just f^%$ing brilliant and a testament to how smart humans can be!
good job. I m so proud of you all.
from Indonesia
Well and brilliantly done, all!
My most heartfelt congratulations and my deepest thanks for the work itself, the work yet to come, and for reminding us that such things are possible when people of talent, commitment, and determination turn, each in their own way, to a common and in this case an infinitely worthy task.
Living here in Nova Scotia, Canada, I have spent many late nights(actually early mornings) following every twist and turn of this mission. It has been worth every hour of lost sleep. You all have done an amazing job and have shown the world what can be done when we co-operate and work as a Team. What a wonderful team it is!! You have had fantastic goals realized, and have shown great skills, dedication and good humour throughout it all. BRAVO, and the best of all good things to you in future!!
Today, you are the real stars on our planet.
I think you are the best representatives of the human species.
Science, technology and perseverance you have shown so far, is the most exciting since the moon landing. Thanks to you, the human species is riding a comet today.
It’s really amazing.
Thank you, Philae will be warmed by the sun anytime soon
Good luck, we love you.
Congratulations for your fantastic work !
Thank you very much for all what you do for mankind !!
(not only for science but also for hope for peace with your multi-country collaboration and the sharing of results)
thank you to all the team and continue to make us dream !
I hope that the sun give it a possibility to be alive
Thank you philae, rosetta, and ESA.
Fantastic job!
Thank you ESA and all the people behind for letting us take part in this amazing adventure…
Hope, we hear something from our little lander in the near future…!
Big thank you to all who made this mission possible!! The comments from people from all over the world prove, how much excitement you sent around our globe with this project. Undescribable happiness shines from their words. Epic achievment and I hope everyone who made this possible can feel the positive energy that surrounds us because of you marvellous people! Again, you ROCK!
This mission, even if it ends now, is a historic success. 100 years from now, people will read about it in the history books, and be inspired to aim for the stars – and possibly reach them!
Hi Fan. The mission goes on some months from now 🙂
Comgratulations to all the team, from conception to navigation!
Thank you for sharing the dream with us Canadians, you are truly inspirational!
Best of luck with the rest of the mission,
LAP
My comgratulations to this fantastic Team and to the people who imagined all this adventure somethink like 20 years ago.
Thanks Guys!! And stay tuned: Philae is sleeping on an iceberg, And at the time of Perihelion everithyng could happen!!
A hard day’s night for Philae – 3 landings, sniffing, drilling, hopping. Many thanks to the Philae team – now go get some sleep, too! – sg
Absolutely outstanding. I remember all these nights in front of my radio listening to the moon landing. Great to have all your detailed info with new media. You can be so proud! Go on!
Bravo à vous tous, merci à ceux qui un jour ont eu cette idée folle, de se poser sur une comète… merci aux Mathématiciens, Physiciens, …pour l’exactitude des calculs…quel exploit… quel exploit !!!!
Les images sont sublimes…
Lorsque la Physique côtoie le rêve c’est fantastique ….
Bravo à Tous et vive l’Europe !!!!!
You are awesome guys! And thank you very much to bringing us your excitement. These days have been a total rollecoaster with the hapiness of every achievement and the uncertainty with every concern.
Thanks for your work to whole humanity, all we are waiting for the results, but soo long, the mission has been all in all a total success.
Good work Philae rest well, Rosetta,keep working and listening, and you Guys keep working to do it all this possible.
The best of the wishes and good luck!
🙂
what a pity, bye bye Philae I do not think you’ll hear more, good trip in the solar system
Rosetta and Philae, you have done the impossible – so many all over this troubled planet have joined in unison to marvel over you. Hope for a peaceful future existence seems to belong in space.
Wonderful work in reaching, orbiting and landing on the comet. But why was luck let to play such a big part in getting the lander to stick to the surface? Really a very difficult task, but the impression I have is that not enough attention was given to this aspect. If I were the project’s director I would be a bit less euphoric.
Now all we can do is hope that his luck’s batteries have not run out!
That’s a crew! Chapeau!
Merci et mille félicitations à toute l’équipe héroïque de Rosetta! J’ai suivi avec angoisse mais beaucoup d’enthousiasme les évènements de la mission pendant que je me déplaçais d’Amérique en Indonésie, et je rêve d’apprendre que Philae se sera réveillé quand je rentrerai à Québec dans quelques jours.
Pitty about the landing, but an enormous, historic milestone achievement. Congratulations.
And, by the way, you got more tweets than Kardashian’s ass. There IS hope for humanity.
The future is to come and the interesting part of this mission is the development of this comet prior and past perihelion. The hope that Philae is found and recharged plus reoriented is still there but the chances are not the best. I hope it is not given up on and it would be nice to hear something from the mission planing what the possibilities are and if they will be tried. When the comet gets closer to the sun and the activity increases the comets rotation could change for the better or worse. For us who are interested of technical stuff and emptied our congratulation accounts it would be nice to get some presentation with a bit more meat on the bones. After all there should be some resources freed now as Philae is dormant. What went wrong and why this had a real bad consequence is clear but should not block constructive thinking, its still possible to save the situation.
Wie heisst es? “Der Weg ist das Ziel”
Selbst wenn “Philea” gecrashed hätte(!), habt ihr eine Menge gelernt… der Flug, die Zwei-Wege-Kommunikation über DIESE Entfernung (Andere können auf EINEM Weg weiter, ok), Das Schlafen/aufwachen, das Abkoppeln, das Zielen – das Kometlanden…..
Und jetzt hat “das Ding” sogar noch wie geplant funktioniert.
IHR KÖNNT STOLZ SEIN.!
Herzlichen Glückwunsch
Hallo, German THOMAS, I couldn’t agree more with you. I’m answering you as the English THOMAS living in France who has been contributing to this blog from an EU standpoint for the past three months.
Meinst du aber mit “gecrashed”: “gegen eine Klippe gecrashed” oder vielmehr: “seine Software ist gecrashed”.
Hoffentlich geht es nur um ein bloss materielles Problem, das in den nächsten Monaten irgendwie gelöst werden könnte …
Es is eigentlich alles ganz egal. In den beiden Fällen bin ich mit dir total einverstanden! Der Erfolg von ESA ist fast total und jedenfalls noch grösser als wir beim Start vor zehn Jahren erwarten konnten…
I notice your moderator blocked my comment. Clearly only comments containing completely undiluted praise are allowed.
So this blog is just dishonest PR. Nauseating.
Can I remind you your salaries come from tax payers. Don’t you feel you have a responsibility to reflect their opinions?
You just lost one supporter. The next time someone I know complains about the cost of space research I won’t argue with them, I’ll cheer them on.
Shame on you.
Oops. My comment just appeared. I take it all back.
Sorry 🙁
@ Edward,
You must learn to be patient. It’s a waiting game, like most often when the stakes are high.
You should also learn that there is more than a nuance between constructive criticism and gut-felt ranting.
As to the content of your disgruntled outpouring which has now been published), I honestly don’t understand how you can criticize certain engineers involved in the project just because “their” part of the project apparently didn’t work perfectly. You obviously understand nothing of the extreme conditions in which the different systems were required to operate. Above all, you make no allowance for the fact that every single instrument was designed and integrated over ten years ago, before the Rosetta mission was launched and that since then, they have all been travelling, untested, through the near absolute zero temperatures of space. (Try buying a car and leaving it for ten years in the street in front of your home without ever going near it and then see whether it starts up first time).
As for the “politicians”, even if they only helped to ensure the funding of the mission, they should also rightly be allowed their moments of glory. Without them and the funding they obtained through their powers of persuasion, the mission would never have happened and we would never have acquired ANY of the extraordinary findings which already have, and still will be, achieved.
I hate to think what you would have said if ever Philae had simply flown off into space after its first rebound, never to be heard of again, (it must have been a very near thing!) or if it had rebounded even further, over the edge of the head lobe, and crashed down into the neck region which, for obvious reasons, had never been envisaged as a possible landing site…
Thanks ‘Philae’ and ‘Rosetta’ for expanding the boundaries of Human Knowledge.
We have been privileged to stand and wonder at what Man achieved in the ‘Temple of Philae in the Upper Nile. It is awe inspiring to see the modern day Philae invoke exactly the same response.
Is there a way to use Rosetta solar cell panels as a mirror for reflecting sunlight to Philae solar panels to charge it? I hope this problem will get solved.
i’m pretty sure that we will get contact again with it, its just a matter of time. Good luck!
Can you turn it into a movie.
Thanks
Congrats to rosetta & and his kid Philae for the amazing space story !!!
Congrats to the ESA Team for this dream you offer to the world !!! i’m sure you will have a another contact with Philae shortly
Thanks for this moment you share with us
JPAT
A fantastic achivement and very thrilling. Sad that the little fellow didnt ancor at first landing but now we have to do the best of the situation. I hope the drill works and that you get some samples to analyse. Whaiting for your next update..
With its batteries depleted and not enough sunlight available to recharge I wonder if there’s any thing that could be done to reactivate those batteries.
Could it be posible to place Rosetta on a geostationary orbit around 67P and perhaps reflect some sunlight towards the Philae Lander.
I know this is a crazy suggestion because the surface of Rosetta may not reflect light but much to the contrary in its own benefit, but…
Otherwise we’re facing a long silence until the landing area gets enough sun exposure.
It has been fantastic. Unbelievable 10 years travel and everything else. What an achivement! Have my fingers crossed and great hope for the future of ESA.
I have been following this mission for the last 7 years ever since one of the scientists came to our local astro group and gave a talk on the mission. What a fantastic feat for mankind (have been watching it all live) and what a great collaboration of nations. Congratulations to the Rosetta/Philae Team. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that Philae will indeed manage to acquire enough sunlight as the comet moves towards the Sun and will start to give us more data.
“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”
― Anaïs Nin
Sweet dreams Philae……sleep well.
Absolutely brilliant. I have thoroughly enjoyed this. Best of luck Philae. I hope that we here from you again soon.
Well done @Philae2014 and your team at ESA. This was the most incredible journey. I wish we could have continued together for longer, but you’ve achieved so much to be proud of. Sleep well little guy. Rosetta protect you always.
This is a amazing misson. Thanks for sharing so much with us . Let’s hope that the last manoeuvre of Philae will be enough to keep it alive enough so it can be awaken again.
On a personal part, here we are packing up the active part of Herschel, and following live a space misson again was a thill. Keep us in touch with Rosetta
It’s was just amazing, congratulations to the whole team. This incredible mission illustrates what european citizens should do more in the close future.
Sleep our little friend and awake later. We miss you till later.
I hope you have enough data to work on for years despite the short active time on the comet. Hopefully we’ll see the lander back talking to us. But even if not, thanks for a fantasic mission and an exciting week. It was just jawdropping! Excellent stuff!
I’ve spent three nights in a row following Rosetta and Philae out of fascination and also reporting on events for our German physics website Welt der Physik.
It’s been a crazy ride, with plenty of emotion, science and engineering fascination to go around.
Thank you so much for everything, not least communicating as openly and directly as you have done. You are wonderful!
I guess a mission such as this involves huge amounts of money. I think ESA should opne “an account” in which people from the planet could collaborate for future missions. Had I been given the chance to donate a small amount of money I would have considered it all whorthwile. I do not know any of you but I am so proud of you ALL. Rosetta, Philae, I started missing you the second you fell asleep. Fantástico trabajo.
This is sheer bloody wonderful. Congratulations to all.
You guys are heroes and should be proud of this achievement. We ‘ll keep listening! Well done!
I didn’t know anything about this story until I mistakenly opened CNN website and read such excited news. I thought it was about a movie!!! Look forward for more information. Pls have live interview with CNN ASAP!!! Give my warm hugs to cutie yet smart Philae. My question is at what speed comet traveling through space ? Grace from USA
Back in May, I seem to recall that the comet was moving at about 13 km/sec with respect to the Sun (can’t find the original reference for this – will keep looking…). Since then, it has accelerated under solar gravity and is now moving faster as it approaches Perihelion, when it will be moving at its maximum speed with respect to the Sun.
It’s next to impossible what you have done! I believe Philae will continue! Good luck and cheers from Russia!
If there is only sunlight on the panels for an hour or so instead of the hoped for 7 hours, then won’t Philae be fully charged after a week or so.
Guess I am missing something?
Thanks for the thrills. I remember the first sputnik in 1957 and I still have the press cuttings. The adventure continues ….
Yes, Tony. You are missing the cold. As of now, that window time is not enough to warm the battery. So no time left for the charging.
Next Philae wish list:
Hyper capacitors as part of the energy systems.
Hy Caps of the capacity needed are not yet space qualified.
The solar constant at perihelion will increase a factor 6, that should do.
Congratulations guys, your team did an AMAZING JOB!! I’m now looking forward to the results of all the measurements which have been made by our little precious lander…good night Philae, sleep tight and thanks for your hard work!!
You did a great job. Thank you all.
Have a nice sleep Philae, time to rest. 😉
Thank you for providing new information. We want to let you know that all the family and many friends here in Vienna are very impatiently waiting for every new detail. What you do is the most exciting undertaking since the moon-landing and maybe the fall of the Berlner Mauer. So: if iPhilae is sleeping now, we will stay online. If every detail would have functioned perfectly this would not be a mission 500000000km away. we ar ealy proud of you all. go on doing this excellent job.
I have not been so excited by any space exploration since the moon landings. It is only slightly spoiled by a bit of bad luck. But hopefully Philae will reawaken later in the mission and give us more data. Meanwhile I am sure Rosetta will find out many incredible things. Thanks and Good luck to all the team.
An astounding achievement. I got the same rush when the Huygens pictures came back from Titan and this mission truly establishes ESA as a top space exploration organisation, thoroughly worthy of all the superlatives it has received. Um – RTG next time?
Sleep well, little Philae. The way you have traveled and the work you have done are both amazing,
Thats an breathtaking project for all of its reasons, i hope it get charged, im in track congrads to any of you.
https://fishintreee.blogspot.fr/2014/11/the-landing-on-67p.html
Congratulations on this fantastic achievement.
Regarding the issue of recharging; Has anybody discussed the possibility of manoeuvring Philae closer and reflecting light from the panels onto the lander, when it’s location has been accurately established?
Correction: Of course I meant to say ‘manoeuvring Rosetta closer’.
Congratulations ESA on your spectacular atchivement !!!!!
Not only have you performed one of the greatest scientific feats but through your communication policy have made me feel as though I was part of the ‘team’.
Thank you for that ….and well done again.
Congratulation with this great achievement!
It may be called a masterpiece that mankind is able to make such a long term project to such a great success, not only scientifically, technologically and logistically, but also politically. I wish we could be so steadfastly in solving more earthy challenges, such as climate change, sustainable economy or human poverty.
Sweet dreams, Philae!
Congratulations for the amazing job!! I’m so happy for this great conquest. Our dear Philae is now taking a deserved nap.
Thank you: a lesson in collaboration and imagination, we have been inspired!
C
Good Job! For all, the team, Rosetta and Philae.
I wish wake up soon 😉
All the best for the little voyager, great work here on earth, go on and never give up the mission, nothing is impossible!
This made me sad, but happy – sad. Cannot imagine how the Philae Lander Team must feel after such a long wait.
A job well done Team Rosetta! Many many thanks for all your efforts. You have achieved so much! I, as others around the world, hope for a reawakening.
Well done on a fantastic mission.
One thing I don’t understand though is why, if the lander is getting 1-1.5hrs’ sunlight a day, it can’t just charge up its batteries a bit more slowly and wake up once every 4 or 5 days?
any news? solar battery charge rate?
Hi Frensis.
https://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/#comment-197695
Cheers to all … In our complicated and sometime terrible times, you have lifted humanity. This event, and similar scientific and engineering breakthroughs give us hope.
Congrats ESA
P.S. Please sell the shirt online- and copies…
Well done! Not only with your breathtakingly quick decisions and ability to get the best from your equipment in such a far-away and unexpected environment but in keeping everyone informed and updated about events.
Excited by science, the world is now a better place.
Many thanks to all involved — Truly Amazing!!!!
Sweet dreams Philae …
What an amazing achievement this has been, I have enormous pride for the men and women involved in this project, everyone must be so happy with the results so far. I hope the rotation is enough to gather the sunlight required to recharge the batteries and the mission can be continued for as long as possible, either way it has been a fantastic and inspiring accomplishment. Great job guys.
If Philea was supposed to get 6 hours of sunlight per day to charge its batteries and now is only getting 1 hour, why not wait for 6 days until there is enough charge in them to do some work and communicate? Surely things could continue on like this for quite some time.
Well done, a really successful mission and there’s still more to come!
Best wishes for Philae and hope it wakes up again soon!
Congratulations ESSA . . !!!
Another giant step for mankind . . . . !!!!
I can’t remember the moment when I was as moved as today, I can really feel that something incredible has happend in front of my eyes. Llucky to be the witness of this spectacular evnts. Thank you so much for great four days ( 10 years actually). You guys are great, and Philae – sweet dreams my prince!
Very well done to the team and everyone involved in building and sending the the craft into space. What a great achievement. Lets just hope that we hear back from the lander soon.
Yes, also my congratulations for this success and the way you integrated us in this event.
Besides a little disappointment, many have because the lander can possibly not activate itself anymore, one must see, that nobody knows, where “the best position” of such a lander is.
You could have drilled for month in the planned dusty area with good communication but no results. Or you accidently land somewhere else, where you only drill once and get the jackpot!
As I said already: NO TIME FOR PESSIMISTS !
😉
Congratulation on a wonderful mission which has to be one of the most amazing human communication journeys we have ever made. This ranks up there with Apollo 11’s landing.
Brilliant! Take a bow!
Congrats on the continued success, can’t wait to hear about the data the lander sends back.
Thanks guys my wee boy has been following rosetta and you have guessed it now want a telescope i think you might have given him the bug lol hope Philae gets some life back to keep sending info
What ESA has accomplished makes me proud to be a human (which is not always the case). Outstanding job and I hope you have inspired some future activities. Since 67P (or a similar comet) could someday cause the end of humanity, this is definitely a worthwhile effort (and for many other reasons too).
Thanks!
RIGHT!
Thanks to everyone on the ESA team. Your work and accomplishments are truly amazing!
So impressed to see what the team achieved, with good planning and a lot of hard work. Ten years ago, you launched a mission to intexcept and thread a needle in a high-speed haystack 300 million miles away, using a programmed robot you couldn’t directly control. Am in total awe of what science, maths, engineering can achieve by teamwork in pursuit of a vision. Makes those who deny the capabilities of modern science look as ridiculous as they are. Well done.
It’s science like this that gives me hope for humanity. Keep reaching for the stars!
You deserve your snooze. Don’t worry, we’ll wake you up again.
That’s one small step for a Philae; one giant leap for mankind. Regards to Philae team.
Thank you guys!
You make dream me, my wife, my son and my doughter and a lot of our friends which followed Rosetta e philae history and achievements during last incredible days.
ESA and Europe has written an important page of the space exploration history and I’m really proud of this.
YOU are now inspiring the next generation of scientist and explores.
Good job
Congratulations to all of you at ESA and all other participating agencies and institutes, it was so amazing to follow Rosetta and Philae and to see that you have achieved your goals! Thanks for this quite stunning week of science! And I must say that such events give me hope, a lot of people all around the world working together to reach their ambitious goals and they make it! So we can also solve a lot of problems on our earth if we are working together on common goals 🙂
Thanks to all the involved teams, all the scientists that will analyze the data, thanks to ESA and to all European citizens for making this happen!
Wow, what an achievement, something to be immensely proud of! One 10yr wait for man, one 4.6 billion yr wait for mankind!
Seems to me “VEGER” has begun its real-life interstellar journey.
Congratulations for your historic FIRST. I am sure you received support from many countries around the world so I give thanks to all those who contributed to this fantastic success. ESA and ESOC is well. I am sure we will all see the science returns during the coming year.
Thank you Rosetta team for the hard work you put. Congratulations from all primary school children in Ellinogermaniki Agogi School, Pallini, Athens Greece
does anyone know where this comet is headed? itz interesting to think who or what in the future might witness our little piece of technology existing on this rock lol
Well done, Ladies and Gentlemen! Well done!
Congratulations, absolutely outstanding work. Thank you for sharing!
A happy & proud team,and rightly so! A job well done!
Wow…what a tremendous achievement!!
Congratulations! Some data available 🙂 and the story will surely continue! Good luck!
Congratulations on a magnificent achievement !!
Man darf nicht vergessen, dass die Technik über 10 Jahre alt ist. Daher ist das Erreichte noch höher einzuschätzen. Tolle Leistung
Could Rosetta possibly be positioned so that its solar panels would act as mirrors and reflect sunlight down to Philae?
So is this mean there will be a Philae-watch, until august 2015, in case if it wakes up from hibernation…? I wish you patience, it can be harder then waiting along a decade.
You all have done a terrific job. Thank you for being such example for all of us.
This is a far fetched idea but not as far fetched as the incredible rosetta success. could it work, if only to some extent:
https://www.ifgr.000a.biz/philae.htm
Our class at the European School Luxembourg II has been waiting with great excitement for months for this landing, so we were delighted that Philae finally reached the comet. The 1km bounce has surely got to qualify our little friend for the Guinness Book of Records!
Now that it is in hibernation we will all be waiting for Philae to wake up when it nears the Sun. If it does, then the comet should be an even more interesting and active place and hopefully much more Science can be done
Some final questions – would it be possible for Rosetta to hibernate while orbiting the comet, as the comet flies away from the Sun? Could its solar panels then recharge it when it approaches the inner solar system once again in 5 or 6 years?
Would it then be theoretically possible for Philae to reawaken on a second approach of the Sun, not just this one?
Finally, if Philae wakes up in the next few months you will have a lot of Science to do. However, before it then fails (permanently or otherwise) will you consider doing what Philae seems to do best – hopping? I understand that some kind of jump is possible? It would be great to try to see more of the surface.
Congratulations from Mr. Jenkin and Class 4En, European School Luxembourg II
As a humanist and a cosmopolitan translator and lover of science, congratulations to the ESA and its team who worked so tenaciously for 10 years to bring this to pass.
I hope Philae was able to drill and gather samples. This is a great step for mankind and a window to more exciting questions.
Simply amazing! If this is the end for Philae…..well done. Congratulations to everyone involved to pull this off. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next update….come on Philae wake up we are pulling for you back on earth! God speed. 🙂
Guys, you are monsters of space flights! :-)) Thank you for sharing with us this great adventure! Thank you for improbable work! You made it! Thank you for your courage and for your ambitions! While there are people similar to you, our civilization has a hope for the future!
So moving forward, has failure of the harpoons & screws and the resulting ‘bounce’ away from the intended landing site inspired any changes in the design of prospective future comet landers? Because I’d find that discussion much more interesting than a chorus of “good night Philae”s.
What about some kind of burrowing anchor that could dig down into the material and the deploy, like, lateral pitons for a more secure hold before the probe reels itself in?
Well done,
Thank you guys, for doing such a scientific work.
What a journey! Thank you!
Thank you all!! It’s been a pleasure to follow your work!
The first robotic life on a comet. What about several earthly bacterias on the Philae board?
Wow amazing all that.i
Your right amazing they got that much money from tax payers for what tell me one thing that this will help man kind !
“And then little boy Philae jumped down on the comet and soon frose up and went into a coma, goodnight and sleep tight”. I think maybe the anthropomorphisms is now a little to much for comfort.
Would it be possible to position Rosetta in a place in space above Philae to bounce enough light off the solar panels to wake it up again?
Fantastic work on behalf of all humankind. Space has recaptured me these last four days. I’ve been struck by how much more fruitful human endeavor could be if all nations joined in journeys of knowledge rather than the ancient bloodletting squabbles over points of view and ways of life. I look forward to the findings in the coming weeks.
Have they had a chance yet to look at the last dataset received from Philae to confirm whether or not the drill succeeded in capturing surface material for analysis?
Grazie a tutti Voi per il grande lavoro, siete entrati con merito nella Storia.
Congrads on all the hard work and success to date and hopefully with some luck further scientific discoveries.
Or more grants from tax payers on something that will not help man kind in any way !
(1) CONGRATULATIONS ESA, ROSETTA, PHILAE! And thank you for all the science and excitement!
(2) Glad not to see any questionable shirts in this photo. Maybe ESA should think about Mission Polos for high-profile work days, though.
It is difficult to imagine how many thousand people from chemistry, mathematics, physics, electronic and computer sciences were needed to achieve this mission. What we have see on TV screen is just the top of the iceberg.
I am one of these thousands of people, I have just worked for the quality control of Ariane5 which has launched Rosetta.
Now, I can say: Fantastic, great, wonderful, extraordinary, extraterrestrial! I do not have enough superlatives …
you shot a refrigerator onto a comet and lost communication… stop calling it massively successful at every single turn!
Congratulations for the magnificent work and achievements that all of you made.
Keep on with the good work and let’s hope for the best.
As the Portuguese people say “Hope is the last thing to die” .
Thank you very much!
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Nice quote, Patrick!
To which Hamlet’s dying words respond: “…given the recent events here—oh, the rest is silence”.
Rosetta, developed and engineered by the ESA is a multinational effort.
*Armageddon style*
Another benefit of the Rosetta , perhaps the most significant – is what the engineers have proven on how to chase down, achieve orbital insertion and land on a mountain hurtling through space.
Skills that will prove useful when we identify an object that threatens a biological reset like the one that ushered the dinosaurs out of existence.
Dream something nice, Philae….and see you soon !!!!
Thank you, rosetta-team, for this incredible adventure !!!!
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”
(Shakespeare: “The Tempest” Act IV Scene I)
Shakespeare had already said it all!
congratulations to the whole team. Looking back, I would summarize it as:
– touchdown we had, and it was more of a crashdown…
– first time ever a probe survives fully a crash on another celestial body (ok, landing speed helped somehow…)
– amazing job of ESA outreach, which managed avoiding that anyone would use the ” crash” word for hours and hours of live broadcast 😉
– even more amazing job from the technical team who sucked all science possible before the inevitable hibernation.
I would be very interested to get some guts feelings from the team about the likelihood of an exit of hibernation. And some questions in the next post.
– do we have already some evaluation of the evolution of the lander’s illumination when the comet approaches perihelion?
– more precisely, any scenario for the global illumination evolution of the probe PV panels?
– anyone on the post with an idea of the expected coma brightness next to perihelion (to understand whether diffuse illumination of the panels might help to recharge Philae)
– I’ve read somewhere that the solar battery needs to be hot (>0°C) to recharge. True or not? If true, any estimate on if and when the battery temperature could be high enough to allow recharge?
– finally, read elsewhere again that Philae would not survive perihelion due to overheating. Any chance it could survive it with a lesser illumination configuration?
Lots of doubts, me too. It’s not our dance, JP. Don’t try to set the tempo.
What else are comments for? Should I keep my frustration silent and transform it into a neurosis?
Ok, about coma:
67/P reaches typically a magnitude 10 close to perihelion, seen from a distance of 0.4 AU, for a size of about 1 arcmin. Let us assume we put this 1 arcmin diameter disk so close that it covers the sky. It will have a brightness about 21 magnitude smaller. So about -11, equivalent to a dim moonlight. Conclusion: the coma should bring more or less 0 contribution to the electricity production (you’d need ~10000 more flux to start producing something with a solar cell).
Is there any way Rosetta could be used as a reflector to direct sunlight down to Philae ?
The answer is also probably elsewhere, but just in case: no.
Many reasons for this, for instance:
From a distance of 5 km, assuming Rosetta tilts its panels properly, and assuming they are flat and fully reflective (quite paradoxical), the image of the Sun they would form on the ground has a width of 14 m. The reflexion of the panels would therefore be attenuated 7-fold due to this simple geometrical figure. Add to this the low reflection coefficient of the solar panels, losses due to imperfect flatness, the limited visiblity duration of the lander, the need to keep Rosetta operational… the gain would be very limited. And Rosetta of course has better to do than spending its time illuminating the dark side of the nucleus…
“This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered.”
It was marvelous achievement, really !
As a result Europe (with Titan and 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko) is on the second position (after Russia, which was first on the Moon, Mars and Venus)
concerning the number of first in history successful landings on other celestial bodies.
Congratulations for whole the team and all Europeans.
This mission is equally if not more important than the first lunar landing. As the mission winds down I am guessing that many of you will go onto other things. You will be remembered for your contribution to this milestone in human exploration. Well done.
sleepwell and don’t forget to wake up when you’r at full strength again.
Too bad you wasn’t equipped with shock absorbers, that would had saved you from that hard landing while the landing equipment failed .
A big congratulation anyway! you deserve it most!!! Epic landing after a long and romantic journey into space
I don’t agree. On the contrary, I warmly congratulate the engineers who designed the damping system, without which Philae’s rebound energy would have far exceeded that required to generate escape velocity and Phlae would have been lost forever.
The scene I observed glued to my computer as the scientists watched & waited for the first signals from Philae was wonderfully intimate, considering that the concerned phenomena were 500 million km distant.
I felt I got to know them a bit. It was wonderful & not only the scientists but the media managers have done great work.
BUT of the four people who were on screen much of the time, I now know & appreciate three, having heard them talk about the mission.
But what about the woman?
In fact,, how about the names of all the people in the ;above picture?
Cheers & congratulations.
Truly Amazing achievement. Hope there is still enough life, for further communication .
Peter
The ancient comet sang its song to Earth, and our cat was transfixed. I wonder now if anyone else has noticed a response from animals. “Little One” is 21, tiny and frail but an old soul, with shining golden eyes. The moment I began to play the recording from the European Space Agency’s website, she came as close as possible to my laptop, listening intently. Never before has she paid attention to any device, any music. But it was as if she was hearing a song from home, speaking to her DNA. We had goose-bumps, watching her. Unforgettable.
My respect to our fellow feline.
An amazing achievement and all people involved can be truly proud. I am in awe of our creation and the absolute wonder that it was made by a wonderful Creator as it is written in the first chapter in the book Genesis in the Bible. It is also amazing that God has given us humans the talents to explore the unknown and how science concurs with the Bible in this case that water played such an important role in the formation of the universe
Amazing feats thus far!!! Why not attempt another? Can we feed Philae artificial light? Understanding it would be very hard to keep a beam of light narrow enough to do any good at a distance of 300,000 miles. Also understanding that Philae’s solar panels may not be in the line of sight of Earth. The only other thing I could think of is to use Rosetta as a reflective tool to bounce sunlight to the hungry Philae. Have no clue whether that would even remotely be a possibility. Best of luck to everyone and the program!!
Meant 300 million miles. DOH!!
Way to boldly go. Congratulations on an amazing mission.
This may be a stupid idea but if possible, why not try it. Both Philae and Rosetta have solar panels. Now Rosetta is able to get solar energy. And when we talk about Solar panels, it does have glass on solar panel surface. So can it be programmed to reflect sunlight to Philae to get it charged? I guess in new missions like this architecture, there should be such provision. so in worst conditions, one satellite can charge other.
I hope someone thought about reflecting sunlight from the orbiter to shine light on the lander’s solar panels. Otherwise, I would suggest a redesign of solar collection systems.
Thankyou to the team! Looking forward the Rosseta new pics.
Sweet dreams little Philae. Catch you on the flip-side
And reaching into the tax payers pockets for nothing in return!
The entire Rosetta project is a remarkable achievement, producing historic results. It’s unfortunate that part of the mission is constrained by insufficient power. Do you know why Philae wasn’t made with a thermoelectric power supply like Voyager, which is able to recharge its batteries without sunlight? Is that old technology too heavy?
Congratulations on a wonderful example of what international co-operation can achieve.
For a welcome change, we get together out of sheer, very human, curiosity to find out more about our universe and the possible origin of life on our planet.
This is a model for our species. Next item on the agenda: making this planet sustainably habitable before booking a flight to Mars. One thing at a time …
Wow, I am sincerely proud to have been born at this particular time in history – landing on a comet! It is amazing! I really hope that Philae manages to wake up really soon! It was so sad to hear that it tripped on its side.
I was actually wondering, even if the solar panels will have a several times less sunlight exposure, wouldn’t that be enough to charge the batteries for some short period of time, albeit, say, once a month?
Why is Philae not carrying a small nuclear powersupply as per Curiosity Rover on Mars? Was this ever considered?
In awe of what has been achieved and looking forward to the latest news from ESA
Thank you to all the people at ESA and the various components on Rosetta and Philae – a decade of dedication and patience and stamina! You are truly the long distance runners of space exploration.
You have the world’s admiration. Thank you for taking us where no one has gone before.
Can Rosetta be moved closer and would it have any affect on the comets orientation through gravity?
Message to baby philae: sweet dreams, hold tight. See you on the other side after your well deserved hibernation. We love you, be strong!
I wonder why aren’t the batteries thermally isolated with aerogel.
Aerogel would add near to nothing to weight of the probe, and its thermal isolation properties are so enormous that with fixed aerogel cover the batteries would rather run at risk of overheating from own charge/discharge losses (but that’s easily solved with thermal-memory material “hatch” opening a part of the aerogel cover if the temperature rises too much; entirely mechanical element not drawing any energy). That way the problem of critical parts of circuitry and batteries cooling too much would be moot; they would take months to cool down below operational temperature even without any heating.
Thank you for helping to re-ignite my interest in that vast space above us.
Congratulations on a wonderful mission!
Is anyone considering bouncing some sunlight – from Sun to Osiris to Philae?
Well?
Thing’s happen. This is an Amazing feat in itself, and will continue to be. To the Controllers and Scientists, don’t hold your breath, that just makes you turn blue. It’s there, you know it is, and it will boot up again when it can! I say Way to Go! Damn good job on a 10 year mission. I can’t wait to see what else you find.
Good luck Philae. Til You see the Light again.
Hey Hello ESA and Rosetta team!!! First congratulations for the results. This is an amazing project that has revealed human potential. Well except for one thing the electrical system of the spacecraft. I am not the super scientist you are but reading some historical record there are some kind of batteries with radioactive material called RTG (Radioisotope Thermal Generator) and these little magic boxes were used for spacecraft that would not have lots of solar radiation like Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini, New Horizons and the Mars Science Laboratory. Well given the aleatory trajectory and rotation pattern of a comet wasn’t a good idea to put one of these onto Philae? This is just my humble opinion anyway just because of the impatience to wait for new photos from this fantastic mission.
Have a nice day
A question arised.
What happens if a gas burst from comet throws the lander, back into space? (especially when frozen gasses start melting, when comet approaching to sun) What are the chances to know whether Philae is still on the surface during hibernation, without batteries ?
You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help
Gratulation , thank you , to all who worked on the Mission Rosetta and ESA Team.Any News from the
inner nucleus from the comet?
Good job!!! Good luck Philae!!!
I’m absolutely over the moon with what has been achieved. The mission had it’s ups and downs, but luck was mostly on your side and thankfully Philae wasn’t on it’s side. (all puns were completely intentional) Keep on keepin on people. :¬)
that’s so amazing thank u
i guess that is magnificent work and achievements that all of you made.
Keep on with the good work and let’s hope for the best and a wonderful example of what international cooperation can achieve.