{"id":16846,"date":"2014-11-11T23:34:17","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T15:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/comet-lander-powered-up-after-electronics-glitch\/"},"modified":"2014-11-11T23:34:17","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T15:34:17","slug":"comet-lander-powered-up-after-electronics-glitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/comet-lander-powered-up-after-electronics-glitch\/","title":{"rendered":"Comet lander powered up after electronics glitch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pK2VdHS5ibo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>DARMSTADT, Germany \u2014 Europe\u2019s Philae lander \u2014 still latched inside its mothership \u2014 has been activated and should be ready for release Wednesday to begin a daring first-ever descent to a comet, the mission\u2019s flight director said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The power-up of Philae is the first of several key milestones planned in the days leading up to Wednesday\u2019s landing, but the lander\u2019s activation came with a little extra drama.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe switched on the lander last night, and the lander didn\u2019t switch on properly,\u201d said Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta\u2019s flight director at the European Space Operations Center here.<\/p>\n<p>Accomazzo said it took some extra time to troubleshoot and resolve the problem, and Philae is now powered on for landing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lander has a feature when it is powered on it switches between two different electronic boards, and this did not occur as we expected last night,\u201d Accomazzo said Tuesday. \u201cThe lander was not transmitting the complete set of telemetry to the on-board computer of Rosetta, so we decided to power cycle it. When it came up again, it was absolutely OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Accomazzo said engineers suspect the electronics glitch was most likely due to cold temperatures.<\/p>\n<p>Ground controllers at ESOC here and at the Philae lander control center in Cologne, Germany, wanted to turn on the landing craft ahead of time to warm up its sensitive electronics for the busy hours of descent Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were a bit worried that the lander wouldn\u2019t be warm enough to go on with the activities,\u201d Accomazzo said. \u201cNow, we already see that the lander has almost reached the temperature we were expecting for tonight, so we don\u2019t expect any problem at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1048\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1048\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1048\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km.png\" alt=\"The CIVA camera on the Philae lander snapped this &quot;selfie&quot; Oct. 7 showing one of Rosetta's two solar array wings and comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: ESA\/Rosetta\/Philae\/CIVA\" width=\"620\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km.png 1024w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1048\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The CIVA camera on the Philae lander snapped this \u201cselfie\u201d while still attached to its mothership Oct. 7 showing one of Rosetta\u2019s two solar array wings and comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: ESA\/Rosetta\/Philae\/CIVA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The final check of Philae\u2019s readiness for landing is expected at 0135 GMT Wednesday (8:35 p.m. EST Tuesday), when engineers at the lander\u2019s control center in Cologne tag up with controllers at ESOC to verify the craft is healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Other activities on tap Tuesday include generating a final navigation update for Rosetta as it flies in a near-circular orbit about 30 kilometers, or 18 miles, around comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.<\/p>\n<p>If Rosetta\u2019s orbit matches predictions of where the spacecraft is supposed to be, officials will authorize the landing attempt to continue. Final commands for the landing sequence will be verified and approved, and mission controllers will confirm Rosetta is ready for release of Philae around 0000 GMT Wednesday (7 p.m. EST Tuesday).<\/p>\n<p>Flight dynamics experts will use the navigation data to plot a rocket burn by Rosetta to be conducted early Wednesday between 0600 and 0700 GMT (1-2 a.m. EST) to set up for deployment of Philae.<\/p>\n<p>Philae is scheduled to condition its battery, open a nitrogen tank feeding a cold gas thruster that will assist in the landing, and turn on a momentum wheel that will keep the lander\u2019s three legs pointed toward the comet during the seven-hour voyage to touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>Around 0403 GMT Wednesday (11:06 p.m. EST Tuesday), commands already loaded into Philae\u2019s computer will begin switching on the probe\u2019s science instruments, which will collect science data during descent and just after touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>After Rosetta\u2019s propulsive maneuver Wednesday, Philae will be released at 0903 GMT (4:03 a.m. EST) at a distance of 22.5 kilometers, or 14 miles, from the center of the comet.<\/p>\n<p>Officials expect to receive confirmation of touchdown around 1602 GMT (11:02 a.m. EST), but the time could vary by a few minutes.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DARMSTADT, Germany \u2014 Europe\u2019s Philae lander \u2014 still latched inside its mothership \u2014 has been activated and should be ready for release Wednesday to begin a daring first-ever descent to a comet, the mission\u2019s flight director said Tuesday. The power-up of Philae is the first of several key milestones planned in the days leading up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3098,3573,3609,3373],"class_list":["post-16846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko","tag-comet-landing","tag-philae","tag-rosetta"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}