Latest Rosetta images of Comet 67/P

Some fantastic images coming out in recent weeks. Really looking forward to the landing next month - if it succeeds!

Comet on 2nd October NavCam

Comet Details

Comet on 26th September Navcam

Boulder Cheops

ESA Rosetta Blog here: blogs.esa.int...

a reply to: AgentSmith
Wow. Nice

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: AgentSmith
Wow. Nice

You took the words right out of my mouth!

Very cool. Now Im wondering what the difference is between an asteroid and a comet. That just looks like an asteriod to me.

Does anyone know why they choose this comet? I mean Ive heard the Conspiracy theories about signals coming from the comet's location but what is the official reasoning?

a reply to: AgentSmith

Can anyone else see the face in the first image? It looks like Godzilla to me.

Kudos to the team. My understanding is that this mission is one of the most difficult ones ever undertaken and if the landing goes smoothly it will be a first and a tremendous achievement which could change our understanding of comets.

If I was piloting this craft I would aim for the thermal exhaust port in Godzillas left eye-I bet that's a sentence you wouldn't read every day. But realistically the best place to land would somewhere like the area in the last image-which wouldn't be easy to do when the landing pad is traveling more than 6 miles a second.

a reply to: AgentSmith

It looks so fluffy... Almost like some kind of marshmallow candy.

a reply to: Hijinx

An ice-cream with lots of chopped nuts sprinkled on top. Which is, I think, more or less what it is.

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
Can anyone else see the face in the first image? It looks like Godzilla to me.

Yes. If we are both seeing the same thing, I say it looks like the head T Rex, looking off a bit to the left side of the picture, and saying "Rawr".

But realistically the best place to land would somewhere like the area in the last image-which wouldn't be easy to do when the landing pad is traveling more than 6 miles a second.

Well, as long as the spacecraft is also moving at the same 6-miles-per-second speed, then it should be very doable.

I really hope the landing goes smoothly and we're able to get a lot of science out of this. Being able to mine one of these some day for resources would be a huge accomplishment, especially if we're able to get a lot of water ice out of one.

a reply to: AgentSmith

In the lower right group of four images In the link "Comet on 26th sept...Navcam" there are two points of light in the shadowed portion of the comets. Maybe bad pixels?

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
Can anyone else see the face in the first image? It looks like Godzilla to me.

Yes. If we are both seeing the same thing, I say it looks like the head T Rex, looking off a bit to the left side of the picture, and saying "Rawr".

But realistically the best place to land would somewhere like the area in the last image-which wouldn't be easy to do when the landing pad is traveling more than 6 miles a second.

Well, as long as the spacecraft is also moving at the same 6-miles-per-second speed, then it should be very doable.

I thinking that apart from the outgassing you can see when you scroll over a bit, there's looks like a lot of smaller debris around the comet, I could easily be wrong though.

originally posted by: Tucket
Does anyone know why they choose this comet? I mean Ive heard the Conspiracy theories about signals coming from the comet's location but what is the official reasoning?

Haha, no there are no 'signals' coming from the comet.
Rosetta was due to be launched with an Ariane 5 on 12 January 2003 and it's initial target was Comet 46P/Wirtanen, however the failure of another Ariane 5 launch on the 11th December 2012 meant it was delayed. Obviously when the same type of launch vehicle as you are going to use fails, you wait to find out what the problem was and ensure it is rectified.

Arianespace Flight 157: Mission Failure - 12th December 2012

ANNOUNCEMENT OF ROSETTA LAUNCH DELAY - 6th January 2003

The Inquiry Board appointed to investigate the failure of Flight 157 submitted its report to Arianespace on January 6, 2003. The board was named last December 13 to establish the causes of the anomaly during the flight of an Ariane 5 ECA on the night of December 11-12, 2002.

As requested, the board established the most probable cause for the mission failure, examined possible consequences for the baseline Ariane 5 launcher version, and recommended actions to correct the problems that occurred during the Ariane 5 ECA flight

Arianespace has accepted all the recommendations of the board, and will prepare an action plan by January 20 to enable a return to service of the Ariane 5 ECA during the second half of 2003.
Initial findings report Ariane 5 flight 157 - 7th January 2003

The decision to postpone the launch of Rosetta - which was ready well time for the expected launch window - was taken jointly by ESA and Arianespace. The Rosetta launch is not expected for at least one year at the earliest. The Ariane-5 programme is now under thorough reexamination. ESA expects Arianespace to provide the necessary guarantees regarding the Ariane-5 system qualification procedures and review process.
Rosetta can no longer catch its original target, Comet Wirtanen. However, the Rosetta team is now at work finding alternative target comets for the spaceprobe to explore. The team will identify several comets as targets that Rosetta could reach, within the timeframe for launch of the next two-and-a-half-years. It will select new targets on the basis of three main criteria: striving for the maximum scientific return possible, minimising the technical risks to the spacecraft, and carefully estimating the extra funding needed. For the time being, the costs of grounding the mission are likely to be somewhere between Euro 50 and 100 million. The comet shortlist will be presented to the Science Programme Committee (SPC) at their meeting on 25-26 February 2003. The SPC will discuss their suitability and viability. A final decision on the new target and mission profile is expected for May 2003 at the latest.
ESA'S NEW CHALLENGE WITH ROSETTA

Comet-chasing mission Rosetta will now set its sights on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. During its meeting on 13-14th May 2003, ESA's Science Programme Committee decided Rosetta's new mission baseline. The spacecraft will be launched in February 2004 from Kourou, French Guiana, using an Ariane-5 G+ launcher. The rendezvous with the new target comet is expected in November 2014.
The choice of a new comet has required intensive efforts, including observations by telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the ESO Very Large Telescope to ensure we know as much as we can about the new target. The cost of the Rosetta launch delay is estimated at round 70 million Euros. The ESA Ministerial Council has resolved the financial issue by approving financial flexibility at Agency level.
NEW DESTINATION FOR ROSETTA, EUROPE'S COMET CHASER - 28th May 2003

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originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: AgentSmith

In the lower right group of four images In the link "Comet on 26th sept...Navcam" there are two points of light in the shadowed portion of the comets. Maybe bad pixels?

Always possible, but if you zoom in 1:1 you'll see there is a lot of these everywhere. Depending on where you're looking there is sensor noise and most excitingly dust particles close to the camera.
It's hard to get perspective, but some of the spots, especially some which show some trailing, are particles close to the camera when the image is taken.
Dead pixels should really show up in all images, so you would need to compare each original separate image - bearing in mind the relative orientation is not necessarily the same when it is taken. The Navcam mosaics are made up of four images, they don't match up exactly because of the spacecraft's relative position to the comet (due to the spacecraft's motion and the comet's rotation) changing between exposures.

Just imagine being on the comet flying through space and looking up at all the stars while you are flying alone; and with that said I am not afraid of flying through space. Every time I look at those images I always wonder what it must be like to be on said object or planet and look out through its own view point.

As well as all of these amazing pictures, both Rosetta and Philae have an amazing array of instrumentation to carry out detailed readings of the environment on and around the comet.

Alice Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer
CONSERT Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio wave Transmission
COSIMA Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser
GIADA Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator
MIDAS Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System
MIRO Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter
OSIRIS Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System
ROSINA Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis
RPC Rosetta Plasma Consortium
-> ICA Ion Composition Analyser
-> IES Ion and Electron Sensor
-> LAP Langmuir Probe
-> MAG Fluxgate Magnetometer
-> MIP Mutual Impedance Probe
-> PIU Plasma Interface Unit
RSI Radio Science Investigation
VIRTIS Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer

Rosetta Intruments

(Anyone who thinks that nothing relevant to Electric Universe type ideas is ever examined might like to note that there are a whole suite of instruments for measuring relevant data - so no limit to just analysing pictures which seems to be the norm in EU circles, probably as measurable evidence doesn't back it up)

APXS Alpha-p-X-ray spectrometer
CIVA Panoramic and microscopic imaging system
CONSERT Radio sounding, nucleus tomography
COSAC Evolved gas analyser - elemental and molecular composition
Ptolemy Evolved gas analyser - isotopic composition
MUPUS Measurements of surface and subsurface properties
ROLIS Imaging
ROMAP Magnetometer and plasma monitor
SD2 Drilling and sample retrieval
SESAME/CASSE Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment / Comet Acoustic Surface Sounding
SESAME/DIM Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment / Dust Impact Monitor
SESAME/PP Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment / Permittivity Probe

Philae Lander Instruments

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: AgentSmith

In the lower right group of four images In the link "Comet on 26th sept...Navcam" there are two points of light in the shadowed portion of the comets. Maybe bad pixels?

Those, amongst others, is what I was referring to in my last post. There seems to be 'free' floating debris tagging along along with the main body of the comet, so the lander might have to do a tango to get on to the comet.

a reply to: smurfy

Most (if not all) of these points which are not cosmic rays or sensor noise and are actual physical bodies are small dust particles in close proximity to the camera. Philae has no propulsion system, so it is basically 'fired' at the comet (with an incredibly low relative speed to the comet of approx 1m/s) taking several hours to descend.
On landing, due to the comet's very low escape velocity, Philae is equipped with a cold gas thruster which will push it down while the harpoons and ice screws are deployed anchoring it in place.
Other than this thruster which can accelerate the craft and a flywheel to maintain it's attitude, it has no independent manoeuvring capability so it would not physically be able to evade anything should it be present. It really is a risky operation, luckily it is only a part of a massive series of experiments. Even if it is lost, there is plenty of science to be done with Rosetta itself.

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
a reply to: AgentSmith

Can anyone else see the face in the first image? It looks like Godzilla to me.

Kudos to the team. My understanding is that this mission is one of the most difficult ones ever undertaken and if the landing goes smoothly it will be a first and a tremendous achievement which could change our understanding of comets.

If I was piloting this craft I would aim for the thermal exhaust port in Godzillas left eye-I bet that's a sentence you wouldn't read every day. But realistically the best place to land would somewhere like the area in the last image-which wouldn't be easy to do when the landing pad is traveling more than 6 miles a second.

Absolutely Godzilla!

New pic today:

Comet on 8th October

ESA Blog post explaining it here blogs.esa.int...

originally posted by: AgentSmith
a reply to: smurfy

Most (if not all) of these points which are not cosmic rays or sensor noise and are actual physical bodies are small dust particles in close proximity to the camera. Philae has no propulsion system, so it is basically 'fired' at the comet (with an incredibly low relative speed to the comet of approx 1m/s) taking several hours to descend.
On landing, due to the comet's very low escape velocity, Philae is equipped with a cold gas thruster which will push it down while the harpoons and ice screws are deployed anchoring it in place.
Other than this thruster which can accelerate the craft and a flywheel to maintain it's attitude, it has no independent manoeuvring capability so it would not physically be able to evade anything should it be present. It really is a risky operation, luckily it is only a part of a massive series of experiments. Even if it is lost, there is plenty of science to be done with Rosetta itself.

That's what I meant by a tango, I was being male oriented, as is Rosetta if you think about it.
I sincerely hope the lander does just that and land safely, because all the really good stuff is on the lander. That it is 21 years whatever in the making is not necessarily a bind as long as the, 'brain' can do the business. I have no idea as to how exactly the brain chip is meant to react, although my guess is that all the possible interactions between the spikes and the ice screws and the push down surge forward have all been thoroughly worked on in simulations.
the wild card is the observable, 'pollution' that is around the comet already in flux.
Those seen vapour trails, probably more ice are unexpected, at least to me.

Anyone else notice the lovely Sasquatch couple hiking on the comet?