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They rotated it slightly just before the main battery ran out. They hope it might get enough light as the 'season' on the comet changes (perhaps around christma

They rotated it slightly just before the main battery ran out. They hope it might get enough light as the 'season' on the comet changes (perhaps around christmas) but no-one knows for sure.

dekhn 12y ago
Do you have a link to an article with more detail?
- codeulike 12y ago
  The official rosetta blog has details of the movement of the panels http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/ http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/ Planetary Society blogger Emily Lakdawalla has a Tumblr that had very good coverage of what went on: http://elakdawalla.tumblr.com/ http://elakdawalla.tumblr.com/ ... details of the movement, the solar charging requirements etc
  - dekhn 12y ago
    This article says something different (more factual/less speculative) than the rosetta blog post. rosetta blog post: "mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander's main body, to which the solar panels are fixed. This may have exposed more panel area to sunlight." article: ". The team managed to rotate the lander during the night of 14/15 November 2014, so that the largest solar panel is now aligned towards the Sun." Ms Lakdawalla's post provided more detail, including confirmation they got feedback from the lander that its movement was successful, although it wasn't clear if they were going to actually get enough light any time soon for full operations (thanks for that hint): " They commanded the lander legs to lift the body by 4 centimeters, hopefully raising it a bit farther above the horizon, and then rotating the lander body 35 degrees to place the largest solar panel in a position where it could hopefully receive the most sunlight. Telemetry confirmed that the lander moved as it had been commanded to do. "
    - codeulike 12y ago
      Right. They don't know where the lander is, what's around it and so on (beyond that one panoramic photo) so whether the light situation will improve with the seasons or not is impossible to know.

They rotated it slightly just before the main battery ran out. They hope it might get enough light as the 'season' on the comet changes (perhaps around christmas) but no-one knows for sure.

dekhn 12y ago

Do you have a link to an article with more detail?

codeulike 12y ago
The official rosetta blog has details of the movement of the panels http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/ http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/15/our-landers-asleep/ Planetary Society blogger Emily Lakdawalla has a Tumblr that had very good coverage of what went on: http://elakdawalla.tumblr.com/ http://elakdawalla.tumblr.com/ ... details of the movement, the solar charging requirements etc
- dekhn 12y ago
  This article says something different (more factual/less speculative) than the rosetta blog post. rosetta blog post: "mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander's main body, to which the solar panels are fixed. This may have exposed more panel area to sunlight." article: ". The team managed to rotate the lander during the night of 14/15 November 2014, so that the largest solar panel is now aligned towards the Sun." Ms Lakdawalla's post provided more detail, including confirmation they got feedback from the lander that its movement was successful, although it wasn't clear if they were going to actually get enough light any time soon for full operations (thanks for that hint): " They commanded the lander legs to lift the body by 4 centimeters, hopefully raising it a bit farther above the horizon, and then rotating the lander body 35 degrees to place the largest solar panel in a position where it could hopefully receive the most sunlight. Telemetry confirmed that the lander moved as it had been commanded to do. "
  - codeulike 12y ago
    Right. They don't know where the lander is, what's around it and so on (beyond that one panoramic photo) so whether the light situation will improve with the seasons or not is impossible to know.