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Fare thee well, Rosetta


FierceRadiance
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Just now, OverlordMcGeek said:

The one that landed on the comet last year?

I don't know the name of the probe so, i can't really check but from sources i found out that they crash the probes to make sure it doesn't contaminate objects that they decide will be of better use to us in the future or to see how the impact of the probe will effect the surface of the object(That was how they found water samples on the moon). There is also another reason and that is that the probe has run out of fuel and they don't want it loitering in space.

Sometimes though it is unavoidable due to the orbit requiring the probe to make a one way trip to get pictures of the object.

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2 minutes ago, BrownStalin said:

I don't know the name of the probe so, i can't really check but from sources i found out that they crash the probes to make sure it doesn't contaminate objects that they decide will be of better use to us in the future or to see how the impact of the probe will effect the surface of the object(That was how they found water samples on the moon). There is also another reason and that is that the probe has run out of fuel and they don't want it loitering in space.

Sometimes though it is unavoidable due to the orbit requiring the probe to make a one way trip to get pictures of the object.

Just looked it up. My bad. It wasn't last year but Nov 2014.

Philae it sort of bounced around. So I guess they did try to crash it but didn't work.

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4 minutes ago, OverlordMcGeek said:

Just looked it up. My bad. It wasn't last year but Nov 2014.

Philae it sort of bounced around. So I guess they did try to crash it but didn't work.

Yeah, it seemed like everything that should not have happened in a landing happened in the landing.

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5 hours ago, Jeffrey94 said:

Wait, was it on purpose? I know they tend to like doing this sort of thing

Philea was indeed 'dropped off' by the Rosetta probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) two years ago, after a fricking AMAZING journey being sling-shotted around the Solar System for TEN YEARS, including three different passes around Earth.  After all that time it arrived precisely where it was aimed, and the Philea lander was released. Philea achieved a 'soft landing' on 67P, but ended up in a crevasse, and stopped functioning after three days due to no sunlight falling on it's solar panels. No sunlight meant no electricity, and after three days, it's batteries became exhausted.

Rosetta's main craft has continued to orbit the comet for the past two years, taking pictures and various measurements, but the comet and it's passengers are now traveling beyond the point where even Rosetta with it's much larger solar-cell 'wings' can receive enough sunlight to continue to function. So, as it's final maneuver, today Rosetta was also 'soft-landed' on the comet, and there it will spend the rest of its days.

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20 hours ago, FierceRadiance said:

Philea was indeed 'dropped off' by the Rosetta probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) two years ago, after a fricking AMAZING journey being sling-shotted around the Solar System for TEN YEARS, including three different passes around Earth.  After all that time it arrived precisely where it was aimed, and the Philea lander was released. Philea achieved a 'soft landing' on 67P, but ended up in a crevasse, and stopped functioning after three days due to no sunlight falling on it's solar panels. No sunlight meant no electricity, and after three days, it's batteries became exhausted.

Rosetta's main craft has continued to orbit the comet for the past two years, taking pictures and various measurements, but the comet and it's passengers are now traveling beyond the point where even Rosetta with it's much larger solar-cell 'wings' can receive enough sunlight to continue to function. So, as it's final maneuver, today Rosetta was also 'soft-landed' on the comet, and there it will spend the rest of its days.

That is awesome. Goodbye Rosetta, you served humanity well.
Glad to see that whoever shot Rosetta out there are actually thinking about what to do with drones that no longer do their intended job. And in such a unique way too... Just leave it there. Forever and ever.

Maybe aliens will find it, eh?

Edited by Artek94
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