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Questions tagged [philae]

If your question is pertinent to - Rosetta Lander, and - Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko please apply this tag

7 votes
2 answers
2k views

How high did Philae bounce?

The Philae lander bounced off 67P/C-G due to low gravity, but how high did it actually bounce?
Mar's user avatar
  • 73
14 votes
1 answer
882 views

Where on Comet 67P is the Philae lander?

My institute has a 3D printed model of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in its common room. Someone recently asked where the Philae lander is located. I know that it's been found but I can't point to ...
N. Virgo's user avatar
  • 328
4 votes
1 answer
136 views

How will Philae's power failure affect Rosetta's mission?

With Philae dead on the comet, how will Rosetta's mission change? Obviously there isn't anything more that the lander can do, so Rosetta doesn't have to use its time and resources trying to wake it up....
duzzy's user avatar
  • 7,174
8 votes
1 answer
324 views

If there was DNA in the "organics" of a comet could we tell?

A recent news article says that the lander Philae on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P, has discovered a rich array of organics and it quotes one leading scientist as saying it is a a frozen ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
258 views

Does Philae's waking enable scientists to determine its location?

Now that Philae has woken, is more known about its exact location? In other words: does Philae know where Philae is? Navigation on Churi sounds challenging.
gerrit's user avatar
  • 11.7k
7 votes
1 answer
569 views

Why did Philae the comet lander bounce?

After Rosetta released the lander, it bounced several times upon hitting the comet's surface and its two harpoons did not deploy. Why did the Philae's grabbing mechanism fail?
Brian Leeming's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
180 views

Philae - organic molecules?

Soon after the Philae landing on the comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko, there were news that it detected organic molecules on the surface. Does anybody know which ones? Were they the basic ones, like CO, ...
L.R.'s user avatar
  • 181
8 votes
2 answers
354 views

Why does it take so long to find Philae's exact location?

We all have seen the photos indicating the exact planned landing site, and the (much bigger) candidate area where Philae might have finally touched down, also the pictures that show Philae "in-jump" ...
TheBlastOne's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
321 views

Since Philae lost power, what would be the approximate time to recharge it

Recently read that power was lost in the Philae probe. Did the team under estimate how the probe would recharge or is it in a spot where it doesn't get enough sun. And since this was supposed to ...
Vnge's user avatar
  • 297
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

Philae Lander - Were drilling samples collected and analysed?

Were drilling samples taken by SD2 and analysed by Ptolemy, COSAC, and ÇIVA?
G Walker's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
235 views

Would a POV camera on Philae lander be possible if the mission was launched today?

I saw the question "Why is there no POV video of the Philae lander landing?", which lead me to this question: The data transfer rate of Rosetta is only 28kb/s, which is not strange because it is very,...
joppiesaus's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
148 views

Could underestimation of 67P's mass have helped Philae?

It appears that we underestimated comet 67P's mass significantly (see What was known about 67P/C-G's mass before the arrival of Rosetta?) during the initial planning. I wonder if this ...
pat_nafs's user avatar
  • 199
7 votes
3 answers
536 views

Could an upcoming comet lander be designed to cope with a greater variety of terrain types, compared to Philae?

All I could think about while looking at the designs for Philae (besides how courageous and ambitious the mission was) was that Philae itself looks like it was designed for landing on a known surface. ...
Mohammad's user avatar
  • 225
5 votes
2 answers
229 views

Is it feasible for a future Rosetta type mission to use wireless transfer of power to Philae?

While listening to the latest updates it seems like there is a limited 60 hour battery capacity left for Philae. There seems to be some information on the web on wireless power transfer using lasers. ...
Mohammad's user avatar
  • 225
2 votes
1 answer
836 views

Why did Rosetta travel 6.5 billion km to reach a comet that was only 510 million km from Earth?

I am reading this news article about the Rosetta mission. In one paragraph it says: Philae's data collection from a comet travelling at 18 kilometres (11 miles) per second, currently at a distance ...
SpringLearner's user avatar

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