Posted on 08/25/2014 3:43:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The ‘Top 5’ landing site candidates have been chosen for the Rosetta orbiters piggybacked Philae lander for humankind’s first attempt to land on a comet. See graphics above and below.
The potential touchdown sites were announce today, Aug. 25, based on high resolution measurements collected by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft over the past two weeks since arriving at the bizarre and pockmarked Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Aug. 6, 2014.
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Their goal was to find a ‘technically feasible’ touchdown site that was both safe and scientifically interesting.
“The site must balance the technical needs of the orbiter and lander during all phases of the separation, descent, and landing, and during operations on the surface with the scientific requirements of the 10 instruments on board Philae,” said ESA.
They also had to be within an ellipse of at least 1 square kilometer in diameter due to uncertainties in navigation as well as many other factors.
“For each possible zone, important questions must be asked: Will the lander be able to maintain regular communications with Rosetta? How common are surface hazards such as large boulders, deep crevasses or steep slopes? Is there sufficient illumination for scientific operations and enough sunlight to recharge the lander’s batteries beyond its initial 64-hour lifetime, while not so much as to cause overheating?” according to ESA.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
This is turning out to be a more interesting mission than I expected. I kinda like site C.
BTW the New Horizons craft crossed the orbit of Neptune today.
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