Starship Asterisk*

SouthEastAsia wrote:

alter-ego wrote:

SouthEastAsia wrote:I'd go for landing in the center of that crater/wall-like structure in the lower-right image, on Comet's body. It might be best protected against the elements there, while also perhaps being able to study more about the interior of a circular wall on a Comet? Just my thoughts...

The landing site will need to be in sunlight a significant amount of time due to the solar cells covering the lander, Philae. The red zones (100% sunlight) are apparently not favored, while the yellow and orange zones are. The green spots mark provisional landing sites. The blue zones are in permanent shadow.

Hey, thanks for that very interesting info and link!

Based on what you gave, I'm going to make an assessment that the said walled/crater-like structure in the lower-right image on Comet's body might actually correlate to the 'Orange' coordinates on the digitzed landing analysis graphic?

And orange oasis within a sea of 100% red no-go zone?

If so, my gut would still just say; go for that neat little sweet zone (even if it's not one of the provisionals)!

alter-ego wrote:

SouthEastAsia wrote:I'd go for landing in the center of that crater/wall-like structure in the lower-right image, on Comet's body. It might be best protected against the elements there, while also perhaps being able to study more about the interior of a circular wall on a Comet? Just my thoughts...

The landing site will need to be in sunlight a significant amount of time due to the solar cells covering the lander, Philae. The red zones (100% sunlight) are apparently not favored, while the yellow and orange zones are. The green spots mark provisional landing sites. The blue zones are in permanent shadow.

bactame wrote:Landing on the object is one thing but drilling into the surface seems foolhardy. The object is obviously in a tenuous state and anything can disturb and change its behavior. The smooth spots are likely dusts or condensates and landing there will remove the material. This would interfere with analysis possibly reveal cracks which drilling will exacerbate. If you've got to land do so on a visible surface. Just because the craft has tools shouldn't imply they must be used.

SouthEastAsia wrote:I'd go for landing in the center of that crater/wall-like structure in the lower-right image, on Comet's body. It might be best protected against the elements there, while also perhaps being able to study more about the interior of a circular wall on a Comet? Just my thoughts...

MarkBour wrote: is the plan for Rosetta and Philae to be sending data right through the comet's perihelion?

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:

geckzilla wrote:

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:They may wish Philae had wheel instead of legs to help that process though I'm sure Rosetta will scope out the comet quite well.

If Philae had wheels it would likely roll right off the comet into space.

You are right Geck. Spiderman would have a hard time navigating this terrain.
…and sticking to it. Come to think about it – Philae comes pretty close to that concept

geckzilla wrote:

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:They may wish Philae had wheel instead of legs to help that process though I'm sure Rosetta will scope out the comet quite well.

If Philae had wheels it would likely roll right off the comet into space.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:They may wish Philae had wheel instead of legs to help that process though I'm sure Rosetta will scope out the comet quite well.

alex_apod wrote:It's amazing to notice that, even with a very low-gravity force field on this object, the small rocks lying down at the boundary between the two parts of the comet seem to be stable and are not ejected by the rapid rotation of the nucleus.

alex_apod wrote:It's amazing to notice that, even with a very low-gravity force field on this object, the small rocks lying down at the boundary between the two parts of the comet seem to be stable and are not ejected by the rapid rotation of the nucleus.

Jarod997 wrote:In other news - it would have been nice if we had a scale to go with that image. I'm not sure if I'm looking at rocks, boulders, or hill tops.