At 10.03 our time there was a separation of the Rosetta lander Philae and. Spacecraft, which flew for ten years and five months, defeated a distance of more than 6 billion kilometers.
The historic landing of Philae
h. 15 ESA released a picture (one of seven), which can be seen from the perspective of Rosetta lander disconnecting itself.
Shortly after the ESA announced that it remains above-mentioned contact with the lander and the Rosetta. Agency received confirmation that the Philae is ready to land.
h. 16 came to us information that MUPUS – Polish utility in the Rosetta mission – calibrates its infrared sensor. MUPUS a “needle” that wwierci into the surface of a comet.
About 17 ESA expected to pick up the signal of Philae landing on the comet.
Just after the hour. 17 signal arrived. Philae landing on the comet. Jean Jacques Dordain, head of ESA, said: “This is Europe first landed on a comet.”
Before hr. 18 reported that the anchors did not work. This means that p rzytwierdzenie ship to perhaps too soft ground is not solid. After meeting members of the mission decided that holding harpoons lander will not deploy again. In the near future, scientists will wonder what went wrong.
After hours. 20 informed that flowed down to Earth the first data from the lander. He sent among them MUPUS. The researchers devote their time to rigorous analysis.
And what about the Rosetta? The probe is on the other side of the comet’s nucleus, which landed Philae. Its task will be to work with the lander.
On Thursday, in the chair. 14 our time press conference. Then will present the details of the landing, and whether Philae is stable.
Crash landing support system
The landing took place 10 years after the start of the Earth and Rosetta was associated with risk, since the surface configuration having the dimensions of 3 5 km to the comet’s nucleus was not previously known. Flight management also detected that the lander rocket engine, which had to help him fix to the surface, not in an appropriate manner. Therefore, the main role in preventing rebound fell to his harpunom lander.
What we can Philae?
Scientists are hoping that the kernel downloaded from the surface of the sample will help expand the knowledge about the formation of planets and life, for the matter of comets forming ice and rocks preserve organic molecules from the ancient past.
Mission for over 10 years
Rosetta was launched March 2, 2004 from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. To reach the comet, the probe used to increase the speed of their gravitational fields of the planets, approaching this purpose in 2005-2009 to the Earth three times and once to Mars. Therefore, with respect to the sun’s trajectory has the shape of an expanding spiral.
Since this spiral almost reached the orbit of Jupiter, Rosetta was a long time in the zone of greatly reduced in comparison with the intensity of solar radiation the Earth. Therefore, in July 2011 on-board equipment trzytonowego probe introduced into sleep mode to activate it in January of this year, when the solar panels could again reach the required power.
September 10, after a series of maneuvers in the vicinity of the nucleus, Rosetta entered orbit around it, which in spaceflight has never practiced. The radius of the orbit is about 30 kilometers away.
On the surface of the nucleus is in arrears more dust than expected, which limits the amount of manufacturing a light into electricity in solar cells. The lander has enough power in the batteries for two and a half days of work.
Polish contribution
His participation in the Rosetta mission are also Poles. The lander is MUPUS instrument developed by scientists at the Space Research Centre. MUPUS is a knock at the surface of the nucleus, to examine, inter alia, temperature. The movie popularizing knowledge of the Rosetta mission completed on behalf of ESA Polish director Tomasz Baginski.
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