MASCOT the asteroid lander is ready for its launch on November 30th

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While Philae sleeps on the comet 67P, the spacecraft MASCOT (Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout) is ready for its launch on 30 November 2014. MASCOT is an asteroid lander developed by +DLR, German Aerospace Center, the Japan space agency +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 and the French space agency, +CNES. 

In 2018 the Japanese Hayabusa 2 Mission will feature an asteroid landing and will, for the first time, allow for data acquisition at various points of this kind of celestial body, assisted by MASCOT , the hopping landing craft developed by the German Aerospace Center.  

Credit image: +DLR, German Aerospace Center

The plan is to send the orbiter to its destination in 2014. Upon arrival in 2018, the spacecraft will initially remain in orbit to scout the unknown terrain. A stable, yet extremely light cover will protect the shoe box-sized lander as it falls to the asteroid’s surface. The four instruments designed to conduct in situ measurements on the asteroid are located inside the DLR landing craft:

• the infrared spectrometer that will analyse the surface composition
• magnetometer to investigate the magnetic field
• a wide-angle camera to record the landing site and the fine structure of the soil
• a radiometer that will measure surface temperatures, among other things.

Once the initial measurements are complete, MASCOT will hop to the next measurement site, providing scientists with data from different positions on asteroid on 1999 JU 3, gathered over two asteroid days and nights. During its mission, the landing craft will be monitored from the DLR Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC).

Credit image: +JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 

1999 JU3 is an Apollo asteroid. The asteroid was discovered in 1999 by the LINEAR project. The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, the first asteroid of this group which was discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth. 

Source: +CNES

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Philae discovers organic molecules on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

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An instrument aboard the Philae lander detected the molecules after “sniffing” the comet’s atmosphere. An organic compound is one whose molecules contain the carbon atom, the basis of life on earth. Scientists are analysing the data to see whether the organic compounds detected by Philae are simple ones, such as methane and methanol, or a more complex species such as amino acids, the building blocks for proteins.

Credit images: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/

A drill on Philae also obtained some material from the comet’s hard surface, but data about organic molecules from that experiment have yet to be fully analysed. Comets contain some of the most pristine materials in the solar system, dating to about 4.5 billion years ago. Previous studies have suggested that comets forge organic material in their dusty atmospheres.

A study of the comet’s organic materials “will help us to understand whether organic molecules were brought by comets to the early earth,” which could have kickstarted life here, said Stephan Ulamec, the Philae lander manager and scientist at the German Aerospace Centre. The agency runs the lander control centre and oversaw the comet landing last Thursday.

Researchers had expected to find organic molecules on the comet, known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But thanks to the probe, they are for the first time able to conduct a direct search for organic molecules in both the comet’s gases and its surface material.

The data sent back by Philae, part of a European Space Agency mission. now will be checked against similar information already obtained by the orbiting Rosetta. In early August, when Rosetta was within 200km of the comet, one of its sensors was able to study the coma, or envelope of gases surrounding the comet’s nucleus. Those early measurements detected water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which were likely to have been released from below the comet’s surface layer. It also found traces of ammonia, methane and methanol. In October, Rosetta scientists studying the coma said they had picked up traces of the organic compound formaldehyde as well as other molecules, including sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs.

An even bigger find would be the discovery of an amino acid on comet 67P. In 2009, a US spacecraft discovered the amino acid glycine on a comet. A similar find on 67P would bolster a view that life on earth was seeded by comets that brought organic compounds with them.

Although Philae’s primary battery ran out of power on Saturday (AEDT), scientists completed a manoeuvre that has positioned one of the probe’s larger solar panels more fully toward sunlight. It means that the probe may yet come to life next year or a bit earlier, as the comet heads closer to the sun.

“We are very confident that in coming months we’ll get more sun and power and Philae can be reactivated,” Dr Ulamec said.

Source: +European Space Agency, ESA


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Press conference of The French Space Agency about the safety and the location of Philae after its landing

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after the successful touch-down of the lander Philae on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko yesterday! The french space agency is doing a conference from Toulouse, France, to clarify all the technical points and the safety of the Philae spacecraft since the landing! Sorry for English people, the video is in french.

Credit image: +CNES 

Touchdown was planned to take place at a speed of around 1 m/s after its separation from Rosseta, with the three-legged landing gear absorbing the impact to prevent rebound, and an ice screw in each foot driving into the surface.

But during the final health checks of the lander before separation, a problem was detected with the small thruster on top that was designed to counteract the recoil of the harpoons to push the lander down onto the surface. The conditions of landing, including whether or not the thruster performed, along with the exact location of Philae on the comet are being analysed.

The lander seems be close to a kind of cave which stop its moves after two bound since its this touch-down. 8/10 scientific instruments are working normally for the moment. The two other stay off for the moment because they need to move and drill the comet. For safety of the lander, engineer are still working and analyzing data to determine if they will activate the 2 last instruments.

Credit image: ESA/ROSETTA/PHILAE/CIVA

Source: +European Space Agency, ESA & +CNES


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Counting down before the landing of Rosetta mission on the comet

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After a 10 year journey of some seven billion kilometres, the Rosetta mission is now heading towards its next major milestone : setting the lander Philae on a comet. Rosetta is a robotic space probe built and launched by the +European Space Agency, ESA to perform a detailed study of comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with both an orbiter and lander module (Philae).

On November 12th 2014, a lander is scheduled to touch down on a comet for the first time in the history of spaceflight. “We don’t know exactly what awaits us there,” says lander Project Manager Stephan Ulamec from the +DLR, German Aerospace Center .

Philae’s landing site, currently known as Site J, is located on the smaller of the comet’s two ‘lobes’, with a backup site on the larger lobe. The sites were selected just six weeks after Rosetta arrived at the comet on August 6th, following its 10-year journey through the Solar System. Site J was chosen unanimously over four other candidate sites as the primary landing site because the majority of terrain within a square kilometre area has slopes of less than 30º relative to the local vertical and because there are relatively few large boulders.

Credit image: +European Space Agency, ESA 

Landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will enable scientists to carry out experiments in situ for the first time. Comets are considered to be witnesses to the birth of the Solar System. Will the surface of the comet be in a primordial state? Do comets show evidence of prebiotic molecules and water, and did they therefore play a role in the origin of life on Earth? The Rosetta mission is expected to help answer such questions.

  Credit video: +DLR, German Aerospace Center 

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Source: +DLR, German Aerospace Center


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The NASA's lander Morpheus uses hazard detection system to land safely in dark

Credit image: +NASA / Mike Chambers

NASA demonstrated that it can land an unmanned spacecraft on a rugged planetary surface in the pitch dark in a May 28, 2014 free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT