After the initial party reached apprehension with probe File – Público.pt

                 

                         
                     

                         
                     

                         

                 

 
                         

Once you have received the first signals from the spacecraft landing on a comet File, by 16h03 (Lisbon time), officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) exploded in joy. After all, ten years ago, since the departure of the Terra mission, waiting anxiously for this day – in one human ingenuity would land on a comet. But then came the arrest and at this point we know that not everything went well:. Harpoons that should hold the probe to the ground of the comet did not fire, which may compromise some aspects of the mission

                     

                         “Initially, there was an indication that the harpoon ran. At this time [17h42 in Lisbon], teams already know that harpoons were not fired, “said aerospace engineer James PUBLIC Hormigo, the Portuguese company Spin.Works.

What happened is exactly what ESA still not say. “We have indications that the harpoons may not have been activated, which will mean that a landed loose material,” said Stephan Ulamec responsible for File, cited by AFP. “We have to analyze the situation,” added this researcher, who is at the European Space Operations Centre of ESA in Darmstadt, Germany. “We do not know exactly where and how we landed. Within a few hours, we’ll know more. “

During the morning and afternoon of Wednesday, things went well for the mission, taking some missteps. For example, the File itself had to be linked twice because the first time did not work, still says James Hormigo.

And now the ESA is faced with the difficult decision to shoot or not, harpoons designed to hold the File to the comet, whose gravity is very weak, since it is a very small body. “I do not know if it’s a good solution firing harpoons,” says James Hormigo. This is because the probe can highlight and escape into space during this operation.

But even if the decision will be the harpoon and shoot it up or flee to File, nothing guarantees that the harpoons work and that maneuver results. “Harpoons need space from the floor to accelerate. . If you do not have that distance, not speed enough to penetrate the soil, “says James still Hormigo

The question of harpoons also raises another problem: if the File is not attached to the ground, the drills in each one of three metal legs, which should penetrate 25 cm on the ground to collect samples of comet will not be able to function. “The drills need something to hold the probe to the comet can penetrate the surface.”

What is known is that the File is four centimeters buried in the comet, says James Hormigo yet. And not fired harpoons, which kept her down there, on the floor of the comet? That answer is still a speculation, also refers to the Portuguese aerospace engineer “. Probably, the soil is quite fluffy and when the probe landed, the ground turned out to function as a mattress”

News updated at 19h13