After Brexit comes Rosexitt: European scientists to end spacecraft’s life

Scientists hope to collect close-up data about comet right up until the very end.

Read the whole story

 

[berrardo]

Electrostatus[/url]":am03cjzc]Why crash into it? Why not try a soft landing? Or would a soft landing cause it to bounce like the Philae lander did?

The mission site explains that it will try to land it at half the speed of the lander.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space ... _September

 

[Potatoswatter]

Worth mentioning that the NEAR Shoemaker mission landed on a somewhat larger body, 15 years ago. Despite inability to aim the high-gain antenna, they uploaded new programming and used it briefly as a surface probe.

I'm not sure about the details though (i.e. not on Wikipedia) — did that mission fall back on a low-gain antenna?

 

[Davisen]

I only have one question about this: Will the data be released only after Phil Plait has signed off on the shirts being worn at the news conference?

 

[Virkash]

zAmboni[/url]":20xxedad]

vnangia[/url]":20xxedad]

Now at a distance of more than 850 million km from the Sun, Rosetta's two solar arrays cannot collect enough power

I'm confused by this 850 million KM number. That would suggest the comet, which has an aphelion of 5.69AU (about 850 million KM) is already on its way back towards perihelion and sunlight.

IIRC Rosetta entered orbit around 67P at 3.6AU, so it should be at least able to remain powered up that far.

yea Max distance is 850 million km. Right now it is around 495 million km from the Sun. http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/

I don't blame them for doing the crash. I just played around with their animation linked above. It would take Rosetta something like 3 years to get back within range for the panels to work again. That's quite a long time to spend waiting (and using resources to keep ppl around). Get some more science with the crash and the move on to the next big project!

Well, the original hybernation ha been of 10 years, so that shouldn't be much if a problem... I suppose they calculated that the cost to keep all the project going for three years is not worth the residual science possible.

 

[sheepless]

GreyAreaUk[/url]":1p82bm8m]"You've been crashing into us for billions of years so LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!!"

Should have named it after a dinosaur.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

sheepless[/url]":1ag6q50b]

GreyAreaUk[/url]":1ag6q50b]"You've been crashing into us for billions of years so LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!!"

Should have named it after a dinosaur.

Revengeasaurus.

 

[Skyfire77]

Shlazzargh[/url]":1vybcyg8]thousands of years from now: A family of minors is working on breaking up a small, oddly shaped comet ... suddenly *SCREEEEETCH -- Ting!* ... "Dagnabit Clem, did you break another bit!?" "Awe, gee, sorry pa! It was a 'nother durned spacecraft buried in a comet"

Could be worse:

"R'tta signals The Creator!"

 

[llanitedave]

TBoneT[/url]":1phqab8v]

Electrostatus[/url]":1phqab8v]Why crash into it? Why not try a soft landing? Or would a soft landing cause it to bounce like the Philae lander did?

I don't think they could manage it. Even the hardware they built specifically to land on the comet failed.

I dunno. NEAR-Shoemaker softlanded on the asteroid Eros, and it wasn't designed to do it. Even if it doesn't work, it should be worth a try.

 

[pqr]

ninjakid[/url]":2q4ui3y5]I was imagining Rosetta slamming into it high speed going out in a blaze of glory before I read the ESA's press release.

Broadly speaking, however, it is expected that impact will take place at about 50 cm/s, roughly half the landing speed of Philae in November 2014.

Googles 50cm/s to mph
1.11847 mph
Oh okay


Also they can't send any data after impact regardless of what happens.

Commands uploaded in the days before will automatically ensure that the transmitter as well as all attitude and orbit control units and instruments are switched off upon impact, to fulfill spacecraft disposal requirements.

In any case, Rosetta’s high-gain antenna will very likely no longer be pointing towards Earth following impact, making any potential communications virtually impossible.

Ahh... and I thought we wanted aliens to find us..