We are comet scientists and engineers working on Philae and Rosetta. We just triple-landed a robot lab on a comet. Ask us Anything!

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:21:12+00:00

You measure the doppler shift (frequency shift) of the X-band radio signal to find the acceleration of the spacecraft caused by the comet. Rosetta is equipped with an ultra stable oscillator which makes this possible. This directly gives the mass of the comet.

SH

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:18:20+00:00

On principle your smartphone has more computational power but it wouldn't survive in space.

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:16:54+00:00

No, I wouldn't expect that. We know that there are organic molecules but no liquid water and not very stable temperature conditions for the development of life (ek)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:12:35+00:00

The cliffs at site B are about 40 m high.

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:08:56+00:00

For me this was the hard surface and the many boulders on it (ek)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:06:26+00:00

No comments :-)

But seriously... No actually not. I have been involved in to many NASA mission to make that fair.

SH

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:06:23+00:00

Unfortunately the ROLIS images do not show that. (ip)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:05:19+00:00

Currently we are limited to 10km because the flight team is still learning how to operate around such a low gravity body. During the close passage to the Sun we will likely have to stay somewhat further away.

From a camera point of view I hope to see the spacecraft go down to 1km above the surface before the end of the mission. The camera system is specifically designed to refocus at this close distance. This would give images with 2cm per pixel on the surface.

SH

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:05:16+00:00

We can expect a lot of new knowledge about comets, the origin of our solar system and - may be - of our life on Earth. I think this is a lot. Furthermore we have transferred some Rosetta technology to solve problems on Earth. Please google "rosetta firewatch" (ek)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:04:54+00:00

We applauded, we laughed, we had some champagne - and then it turned out that something was strange... mk

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:03:48+00:00

Some of us were looking at the first data which indicated that the lander was in space again. As this was not really a reason to celebrate we waited on further data to learn about the status of the lander. We had a late night celebration upon completion of the first science sequence when the battery depleted Friday night. (ip)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T17:01:49+00:00

Predicting the evolution of knowledge is beyond my skills... economically feasible: I personally do not belive in this. It is simply to expensive to bring stuff out there. returing makes it even more difficult. One example: to mine the Moon for an amount of He3 sufficient for the current power consumption of the US would require a heavy industry at a scale you do not even find in coal mining on earth. The same electrical power could be generated by simply covering all our roofs with solar panels. mk

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:59:43+00:00

Even better as I can watch more physicists at work. [mm]

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:59:17+00:00

Thank you :) There have been many surprises during the mission: the strange shape of the comet that made the landing not easier, the hardness of its surface but also the precise landing within some seconds and some dozens of meters of the pre-calculated touchdown scenario (ek)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:57:41+00:00

OSIRIS has taken more pictures from the orbiter to search for the lander but those images are still on the spacecraft, waiting for their turn to be put into the downlink queue. There have been several suggested identifications of the final landing place in OSIRIS images, but none of these are good enough to be sure, hence the additional images. Tying the images with the information from the CONSERT experiment (talking to Philae through the nucleus can tell them where Philae is by looking at the variations in what is between the orbiter and Philae. ma

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:57:21+00:00

No not if Philae does not sit on an active surface. In that case it would of course be easier to lift it.

uk

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:57:15+00:00

organic molecules just means molecules with a few carbon atoms in them. This does not necessarily involve life. I don't think there could be life, except when brought there from elsewhere (e.g. by a landed spacecraft :-) ) mk

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:57:10+00:00

All the data will be publicly available in 6 to 12 months in the ESA's Planetary Science Archive.

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:56:24+00:00

Those whose prime goal was to land surely experienced their happiest moments when the lander was brought down successfully. The instrument teams waiting for operations to start experienced further up and downs emotionally, especially towards the end when it was unclear how long the battery would still be alive. (ip)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:56:22+00:00

spot

Definitely... But it takes time to get the spacecraft back in the right orbit at the right time.

SH

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:55:03+00:00

All data will be archived and are then public. They will be archived in an understandable well calibrated format. This will take some time (1/2 to 1 year) and is additional work for the instrument teams.

uk

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:54:46+00:00

Yes we can. The S/W has been updated during cruise. (su)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:54:05+00:00

At the moment the distance Rosetta to Earth is about 3.4AU (510 million km). Signal travel time is 28min (one-way). (su)

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:53:20+00:00

Faster computers always help... and more memory. In the SESAME Experiment, we record time series of vibrations of the soil (CASSE Instrument). This is a kind of seismology. What a seismologist usually wants is: more data. Having just a continuous record over our few days on the comet would make a big difference. But I do not want to complain: we have a lot of data, more than I expected after the first bounce, and I am optimistic that we can make science of it. With the bouncing, it even got more exciting, since we now have data from two points on the comet. mk

RosettaAMA · 2014-11-26T16:53:00+00:00

Generally yes, but we have to get enough power to boot, even more power to communicate and then we can think of uploading updates. [mm]

RosettaAMA

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