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

Dear readers and followers,

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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Touch Down on the comet !! confirmation!!

Dear readers and followers,

Today the lander Philae did the touch down on the comet !!! After a 10 year journey of some seven billion kilometers, the Rosetta mission is now the new step : landing and exploration of the comet land !

This morning, Philae separated from Rosetta. Seven hours later, it arrived today at 17:04 CET at the surface of the comet. Hopefully, Philae survived the landing, and will begin to return data from the comet.

Touchdown was planned to take place at a speed of around 1 m/s, 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 first pictures taken by the Philae have been released. The first one shows the comet few hours before to land. The second one has been taken on the land of the comet. The third one has been taken approximately 10 km before landing

ESA/Rosetta/Philae/DLR

ESA/Rosetta/Philae

ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Source: +European Space Agency, ESA

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First picture CIVA images of Philae lander

Dear readers and followers,

today you can follow in live the landing of the Rosetta's lander Philae on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko. 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).

ESA just released pictures of the landing step enjoy, more data soon, so stay tuned.

Credit images: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Credit images: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Don't forget that you can follow the live video streaming here

Source: +European Space Agency, ESA

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Live video of the Philae landing on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko

Dear readers and followers,

today you can follow in live the landing of the Rosetta's lander Philae on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko. 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.  

In French here:

Credit video: +CNES 

In English here:

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).

This morning, Philae separated from Rosetta. Seven hours later, it will arrive at the surface of the comet. Hopefully, Philae will survive the landing, and begin to return data.

Credit image: +European Space Agency, ESA 

See below the different steps for the landing

The comet is really large, as you can see on the picture below with a comparison with Paris city:

Source: +CNES

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