I don’t see how it can drill into the surface if the harpoons haven’t embedded.
If it didn’t bounce off, can’t the drills just start digging in now?
Well, if the lander bounced off, how can the drills reach the surface? Even if it was just sitting there (very unlikely), the torque the drills might need would just push the lander away from the surface.
Any any movement away from the comet faster than 1.1 miles an hour mean’s it’ll escape its meager gravity and drift away.
I see. What a conundrum.
without…that should be ‘it’ll just skip around without the cable…’
So then how does that work? The lander hits the surface and the harpoons instantly deploy to grab the comet?
If that’s the case it seems like all we can hope for is that the retro rockets brought it down really softly and exactly level (relatively anyways) so it didn’t roll over.
The comet is “singing”… … I’m so glad it’s not rapp
How does one sing in a vacuum? I saw that headline too, but didn’t read the story.
The sounds of interstellar space explained.
Ah. Thanks.
First picture from Philae, shortly before it landed: https://twitter.com/Philae2014/status/532593337585651713
And I am 5 bucks richer – woohoo!
Jesus Christ, the live feed is just sitting there on one of my tabs and I think I had a mini-stroke when she started talking…and for nothin’.
I should probably turn the sound down a little.
New (speculative) announcements on the landing:
Philae definitely contacted the comet, but it might have bounced and tumbled slightly. There was some rotation detected for a little while but it has now stopped.
Right now Philae is out of contact for a few hours while Rosetta is behind the comet.
The weight of the lander on the surface of the comet is the equivalent of about 1 gram. So, the slightest disturbance would send it fly away. In particular they’re concerned with random gas releases, frequent on the comet, and also with the possibility that drilling could release gas.
So, first time I checked today, the mission was deemed a likely failure because the probe wouldn’t land. Second time, it landed but it’s still almost as bad. We’ll see tomorrow, I guess.
I’m really impressed by the precision of such missions. Given the distances involved, I wouldn’t be surprised if they missed Jupiter half the time, let alone a comet.
It must be frustrating when not only is the speed of light is too slow, but you also have to deal with a ~12 hour rotational period.
I’m confident we’ve found the final resting place of Jimmy Hoffa.
What time will the mission be back in contact with the lander again?
From the twitter account of the ROMAP instrument onboard Philae (because of course it has its own account 
)
That two hour long bounce must have been quite the thing! I wonder how far above the surface it got?
They are just rubbing it in. :mad:
“Oh no, we didn’t just land once in a comet, nuh uh, we landed thrice on it, 'cause we can.”
I’m really surprised by how the comet looks. Who knew it would be so spiky, so craggy, and so irregular, with its hollows full of what looks like soft sand? In the mental picture that I’d always maintained, comets were like giant pieces of pumice. But, you know, I don’t encounter comets all that often.