Rosetta's Philae historic comet landing a little rocky

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: ESA/ROSETTA/NAVCAM, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
The European Space Agency (ESA) rejoiced when it successfully landed a probe on a comet - dubbed 67P.

More space news this week: the European Space Agency (ESA) became first to successfully orbit a comet and land a probe on its surface. The ESA reported on November 12 the Philae Lander payload detached from the Rosetta Probe, reaching the surface of comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. First meeting 67P in August this year, Rosetta needed to analyze the surface composition, mapping multiple landing sites before sending Philae away.

The mission – launching from French Guiana in March 2004 – used Earth and Mars’ gravity wells to slingshot towards 67P, while meeting two asteroids along the way; the diamond-shaped 2867 Steins in 2008 and 100 km across 21 Lutetia in 2010.

Conserving energy, the spacecraft went into a deep hibernation mode for two-and-a-half years, measuring only distances to the comet and away from Earth. In January 2014 the duo woke up, maneuvering to orbit with 67P.

While Philae became the first probe to land on a comet nucleus, life rarely goes according to plan. Harpoons, which were to drill into the surface and hold the lander – stopping it from bouncing away into space – failed to fire, and the threelegged Philae did just that. The ESA reported two bounces after the initial landing, sending the lander over a kilometre into space for over an hour before setting back down.

In the same press conference, officials stated that Philae now rested on a cliff edge, and due to this the needed six to seven hours of direct sunlight to recharge batteries had dropped to less than two. It was determined Philae had just 65 hours of available work time left.

Scientists agonized over launching the probe to a better location, or trying the harpoons again-possibly sending the lander into space due to the weak gravity. Philae was rotated, and though more sunlight was reaching the panels, it still wasn’t enough. The team then performed one drill sample, and on November 15 Philae went back to sleep.

But would these issues occur if humans had made the trip, instead of robotic probes? Could they handle the pressure of finding a better landing site? The ESA reported it took 28 minutes for a signal to be sent back to Earth from P67, so controlling the probes like a drone was not an option.

Students had mixed thoughts about whether it was worth to send humans instead.

“I think whatever is safest, but we could still to expand our knowledge on space... whatever’s better as long as humans are safe,” said Jordan Boylan, a broadcasting student.

“[We should use] solely probes, for the lack of gravity,” said Police Foundations student Trevor Payne.

NASA has documented the ill effects of space on humans since the 1960’s. But Science Laboratory Technologies student Alex Howarth thought otherwise.

“I think we should start sending humans for research,” Howarth said. “The logic and reasoning skills of a human far surpass anything a robot would be capable of, which is indispensable when planning serious research missions-we got more information from the moon dust Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin chose to take back from the moon than any probe, because they had the ability to select specific samples to take [home].”

The hope is that by August 2015, P67 will be close enough to the sun for Philae to wake up again and begin drilling and analyzing the comet’s surface.

Until then, the ESA said all but one major experiment had been completed, and the Rosetta still was the main vehicle for experiments performed on the comet. More information about the Rosetta mission can be found at esa.int/ESA.