Philae and the Comet Landing

From ESA

Philae landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko today. Probably. Maybe even twice. Considering two of the three device designed to keep the probe down, a small rocket and the harpoons, didn't even work right, I'd say it was a pretty good day's work for the little lander. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to get more information, as Rosetta, the main craft, is out of communications range. I guess this must happen often, if not, this doesn't seem like the greatest time to drop the lander, a couple hours before all communication is lost. Ah well, I'm not on the project, what do I know?

I have to admit, I was a bit worried about it today. This hasn't been a great time for space flight, with 2 rockets experiencing what can modestly be called catastrophic failure. It looks like Philae has survived the slowest fall in the solar system (okay, not literally, but come on, the comet's pretty small.) and will transmit some useful information.

On a side note, it seems like people were really impressed with what Philae did today, and yes, it is a remarkable achievement. But it wasn't that hard. Basically, all they did was point the thing in the right direction and give it a little nudge. The rocket on Philae is not designed to slow the descent, but to keep the probe anchored to the moon. Same with the harpoons. Unless it's landed on a cliff or on top of a boulder, Philae should be just fine. The real achievement was getting Rosetta in orbit around the comet in the first place. Come on, after ten years, perfectly intercepting a tiny rock hundreds of millions of miles away? That's some serious math skill right there.

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