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At some point in the future, someone is going to fly to that comet, land, get out of their vessel and walk over to Philae and smile, give it a pat on the head,
by movedx 10y ago
At some point in the future, someone is going to fly to that comet, land, get out of their vessel and walk over to Philae and smile, give it a pat on the head, and then take it home; someone in the future is going to be lucky enough to experience that task and become a part of its history.
- snowwrestler 10y agoThink of the collectible value!
- gene-h 10y agoAnd it might still work. One of the neat things about Philae is that it's rated to withstand temperatures down to −60 °C. Most other space probes(and electronics in general) are not rated for such low temperatures and will experience solder joint failures if such temperatures are reached. Most space probes stay above their failure temperature with heaters, if said heaters fail, the space probe dies and won't function even if it warms back up. This happened to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. We don't know just how low Philae can go, however, there is a good chance it's electronics won't break below the rated temperature.
- widforss 10y agoWorth mentioning is that objects keep their thermal energy for much longer in a vacuum since there is nothing that can conduct the heat away, so the heaters does not have to output that much energy.
- junke 10y agoThen someone will update the XKCD comic with a similar smile on their face.
- fogleman 10y agoI don't think you can really walk on the surface. There's hardly any gravity.
- movedx 10y agoYou're assuming that's a technological challenge that hasn't been overcome, despite the fact the person flying the vessel is was indeed flying a vessel capable of landing in the first place, and returning home :P