Publication Date:
2015-08-01
Description:
The Philae lander, part of the Rosetta mission to investigate comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, was delivered to the cometary surface in November 2014. Here we report the precise circumstances of the multiple landings of Philae, including the bouncing trajectory and rebound parameters, based on engineering data in conjunction with operational instrument data. These data also provide information on the mechanical properties (strength and layering) of the comet surface. The first touchdown site, Agilkia, appears to have a granular soft surface (with a compressive strength of 1 kilopascal) at least ~20 cm thick, possibly on top of a more rigid layer. The final landing site, Abydos, has a hard surface.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Biele, Jens -- Ulamec, Stephan -- Maibaum, Michael -- Roll, Reinhard -- Witte, Lars -- Jurado, Eric -- Munoz, Pablo -- Arnold, Walter -- Auster, Hans-Ulrich -- Casas, Carlos -- Faber, Claudia -- Fantinati, Cinzia -- Finke, Felix -- Fischer, Hans-Herbert -- Geurts, Koen -- Guttler, Carsten -- Heinisch, Philip -- Herique, Alain -- Hviid, Stubbe -- Kargl, Gunter -- Knapmeyer, Martin -- Knollenberg, Jorg -- Kofman, Wlodek -- Komle, Norbert -- Kuhrt, Ekkehard -- Lommatsch, Valentina -- Mottola, Stefano -- Pardo de Santayana, Ramon -- Remetean, Emile -- Scholten, Frank -- Seidensticker, Klaus J -- Sierks, Holger -- Spohn, Tilman -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 31;349(6247):aaa9816. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9816.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)/Raumflugbetrieb und Astronautentraining, Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC), Linder Hohe 1, 51147 Cologne, Germany. ; Max-Planck-Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung (MPS), Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; DLR/Institut fur Raumfahrtsysteme, Robert Hooke-Strasse 7, 28359 Bremen, Germany. ; Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France. ; European Space Agency/European Space Operations Centre (ESA/ESOC), Robert-Bosch-Strasse 5, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany. Grupo Mecanica de Vuelo at ESA/ESOC - GMV Robert-Bosch-Strasse 5, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany. ; 1. Physikalisches Institut, Georg August Universitat, 37077 Gottingen, Germany; permanent address: Department of Materials Science, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrucken, Germany. ; Institut fur Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik, Technische Universitat Braunschweig Mendelssohnstrasse 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. ; DLR/Institut fur Planetenforschung Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany. ; Universite Grenoble Alpes and CNRS, Institut de Planetologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, F-38000 Grenoble, France. ; Institut fur Weltraumforschung (IWF) Graz, Austria Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute, Schmiedlstrasse 6, 8042 Graz, Austria.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26228158" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
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Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Computer Science
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Medicine
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
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