4 ms·
Hats off to the team who made this work with the available power budget, considering the spacecraft was not really designed to go out that far away from the sun
by Udo 12y ago
Hats off to the team who made this work with the available power budget, considering the spacecraft was not really designed to go out that far away from the sun.
Both Rosetta and Philae would have been an excellent use case for nuclear batteries, which would have allowed the lander to send data back for decades. Granted, most of the science data can probably be gathered within the window we have now, but it would have been nice to have a longer-term sensor up there.
- ceejayoz 12y agoI had no idea this was the case: > Scientists hope that Philae and its 10 instruments will conduct 64 hours of work before its batteries drain. I'd figured with all the effort to get it out there that it'd be set up to ride the comet down and give us a first-person view of what happens as it loops around the sun. Such a pity.
- sp332 12y agoThat's what Rosetta is for. The Philae lander is just for some surface readings.
- andrewgodwin 12y agoThe DLR article says that, if the solar panels work, it'll last a lot longer - until it gets too close to the sun and the heat gets too great (about 2AU): http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151_read-12011/year-all/#/gallery/17045 http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10081/151...
- ceejayoz 12y agoAh, that's much better. Thanks!
- zaphoyd 12y agothe article goes on to say the lander has solar panels that will recharge the batteries for additional work (although at a slower pace) as long as it doesn't land in a shadowed area.
- IndianAstronaut 12y agoA nuclear battery would have been amazing on Huygens. We cojld learn so much about the fascinating moon Titan.