The European space agency ESA on Wednesday made history with the first successful komeetlanding. The Philae-ruimtelander has Wednesday afternoon the saving signal is sent that the landing is successful.
The Philae-ruimtelander has landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and learn something about 17.00 hours received the ESA signal from the lander. Between the successful landing and the reception was half an hour, causing the voltage of the organisation has considerably increased. There could a lot go wrong in the landing and Philae would be interim no longer be corrected can be, but that was it. More about the successful landing is to be seen in the special stream.
The image that Rosetta of Philae took after the ruimtelander his trip of seven hours to the comet began.
ESA sent after landing, a tweet from the name of Philae on the successful landing in different languages, including English.
I’ve landed! My new address: 67P! #CometLanding
— Philae Lander (@Philae2014) November 12, 2014
The ESA has long searched for a suitable landing spot on the irregularly shaped comet for the Philae probe. Eventually, there would be just one place on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko have been found where a safe landing could be and where there is adequate sunlight available for the solar panels of the probe. Also the location, which Agilkia is named, are considered suitable for the execution of holes in the komeetoppervlak by the cube of the spacecraft.
The intention was that the Philae lander is on the comet would fetter with harpoons, but other than first thought is not successful, let the ESA know on Twitter. The team will be to try the harpoons again to chains. If that doesn’t happen, then there is a risk that the lander weather is drifting in the direction of the space; the four-kilometer comet has hardly any gravity.
ESA also has the first image released that Philae has made to his landing, at a distance of 3 kilometers from 67P.
The coming months should Philae monsters begin to gather and analyze. On the basis of this knowledge, like ESA scientists make comparisons to substances on earth. This may include consideration of whether the theory is plausible in which it is stated that meteorite impacts on earth have played a role in the emergence of life. Also, the samples should provide more insight into the origin of the solar system. The end of the mission on 31 december 2015 as planned.
The ESA launched Rosetta, the satellite Philae to the comet transported, on 2 march 2004 from the European launch base in Kourou, French Guiana. In total, the satellite has more than ten years for the comet to reach, including a period in which the satellite into ‘hibernation’ is held to save fuel. In January of this year was the ‘kometenjager’ successfully from sleep, awakened. Since the Rosetta probe after a space flight of more than six billion kilometers on August 6 at the comet has arrived the all numerous photos made of his target. Furthermore, it contains the Rosetta among other things, a mass spectrometer, a microwave thermometer and a ultraviolet-spectograaf. With the spectograaf all measurements are carried out in the tail of the comet and the coma, a shell that occurs when the comet gets closer to the sun.
Update, 18:10: Paragraph added about the harpoons of the lander, which otherwise was thought not successfully fired.
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