[X] My Assistant

[vikingmars]

Now, it's time to open a new section devoted to the landing of the Philae lander itself on the nucleus of Comet 67P C-G.

Also to answer better the earlier post,
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=212943
and for your information, here is the quick summary (as a "pdf" file) of the events that are expected to occur during landing on the nucleus and after : it's the timeschedule on which we are working to set up our EPO event in Paris.
 Sequence_ATTERRISSAGE10_UMSF.pdf ( 263.81K ) Number of downloads: 4707

The landing itself should occur around November 11th.

We'll keep you informed

[Gerald]

The timing of the landing options has been pinned down for November 12 (GMT) :

Two robust landing scenarios have been identified, one for the primary site and one for the backup. Both anticipate separation and landing on 12 November.

For the primary landing scenario, targeting Site J, Rosetta will release Philae at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET at a distance of 22.5 km from the centre of the comet, landing about seven hours later. The one-way signal travel time between Rosetta and Earth on 12 November is 28 minutes 20 seconds, meaning that confirmation of the landing will arrive at Earth ground stations at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET.

If a decision is made to use the backup Site C, separation will occur at 13:04 GMT/14:04 CET, 12.5 km from the centre of the comet. Landing will occur about four hours later, with confirmation on Earth at around 17:30 GMT/18:30 CET. The timings are subject to uncertainties of several minutes.

The 22.5 km look rather distant. I'm not quite sure about the reason. Might be it turned out, that Philae is more predictable than Rosetta regarding drag due to outgassing? Or it has something to do with the observability of Philae during the descent and communication early after landing.

[MahFL]

The 22.5 km look rather distant.

Remember you do not want the orbiter to accidentally hit the comet too, so someone decided 22.5 km was the distance to use.