Philae landing on the nucleus of Comet 67P C-G Options

[jmknapp]

The orientation was described as "vertical", with two of the feet on the surface and the other slightly off.

[Burmese]

The orientation was described as "vertical", with two of the feet on the surface and the other slightly off.

So sounds like right next to some cliff or overhang.

[Hungry4info]

You can see the shadow of one of the antennas in one of the CIVA images. This provides a lot of perspective on how close some of these features are.
(I suppose everyone probably knows this, I just didn't realise it until rotating the image to try to make sense of it).

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[chris]

I may have missed this before, but my understanding from a comment at the press conference is that the harpoons were commanded to fire, but didn't.

Details of the harpoons can be seen here http://www.esmats.eu/esmatspapers/pastpape.../2003/thiel.pdf

[Toma B]

Well, just a thought...
I think they should do whatever they can with battery and finally try to drill into the comet in hope that they can move to some better orientation. There might be a possibility for that because Philae is NOT anchored and comet's gravity is so weak.

[djellison]

That's nearly a 1/4 of the whole comet.

No. The circumference of a roughly spherical object, of roughly 4km across is very roughly 12 km.

1 km is 1/12th of that..not 1/4

[jmknapp]

I think the bottom line of the press conference is that they are in a good position all in all, and once they get confidence about the exact position and configuration they are in, there are a number of possibilities for "optimizing" the situation. Who knows, they even talked about the possibility of a "jump"--risky but we've seen that kind of ingenuity before, as long as they have something to play with and communications were described as excellent. Any mechanical system onboard will produce reaction. They even said that the use of the drill without the lander being anchored *could* cause the lander to flip. Also the harpoons didn't fire for unknown reason at this point, but they haven't written them off. As for the meager 1.5 hours of sunlight per day, even if the batteries run down there is a safe mode that the lander *could* wake up from even months down the road. So champagne is called for.

[Gerald]

Well, just a thought...
I think they should do whatever they can with battery and finally try to drill into the comet in hope that they can move to some better orientation. There might be a possibility for that because Philae is NOT anchored and comet's gravity is so weak.

After attitude and context are known in more detail, they might consider to use the landing gear to get more sun.
But they'll be cautious before, to get as many science data back as possible, since mechanical operations are of high risk.

[TheAnt]

After attitude and context are known in more detail, they might try .... to get as much science data back as possible, since mechanical operations are of high risk.

That is the impression I am getting here also. Jean-Pierre Bibring said something like "Do not put any emphasis on failure of the system ... it is gorgeous where we are!" And I do not think Philae is upside down as has been suggested, I have the impression it is leaning but wedged in place.

[MahFL]

I have the impression it is leaning but wedged in place.

Ha ha, no need for harpoons, just wedge yourself into a crevice.

[Thorsten Denk]

The orientation was described as "vertical", with two of the feet on the surface and the other slightly off.

I still struggle to interprete this.
"Vertical" is ... what?
The z-axes? Or the x/y-plane? ...

Thorsten

[4th rock from th...]

(removed by me, better panorama already exists)

[TheAnt]

Ha ha, no need for harpoons, just wedge yourself into a crevice.

Yes that would have been wonderful, but not in this weak gravity. =)
Yet when it is as much in shadow as it is, do suggest something such though.

And a confirmation: They will be looking into possible means of adjusting the position of the lander.

@Thorsten: I wondered too at first, now I guess it is in relation to the nearby surface and not anything else.

[Harder]

About drilling:
A very important aspect of the drill (the SD2 instrument package) is its sample collection function for the Organics-chasing instruments COSAC and PTOLEMY.

So I believe there will be action with SD2 one way or the other to deliver samples, otherwise these two most important instruments (“did comets bring life-precursors to Earth?) will be idle. The potential major science return justifies the effort, now that Philea is fully intact on the surface: Emily: "no damage to Philea"

Correction: Matt Taylor just mentioned that these two instruments already sniffed samples, so they are certainly not idle

[MarsInMyLifetime]

The camera arrangement is in principle similar to that of the Google mapping camera pods. If these images could be rendered in the Google Map environment, you'd essentially have that ability to peer around with spatial context.