Misc

It looks like NASA made several bad predictions regarding what Rosetta's Philae lander would discover on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

"Today humanity will make its first attempt to land a probe on the nucleus of a comet."

I like how they say "humanity". Humanity didn't create this project. A handful of people did. The vast majority of us had no role except possibly having our money stolen for it. They say humanity for propaganda purposes.

"Since the texture of the comet's surface is unknown and its surface gravity is surely low, Philae will then attempt to harpoon itself down, something that has never been done before."

Interesting how they failed to call the comet a dirty snowball and said the texture is unknown instead.

"Whether Philae actually lands, whether it lands on a smooth patch, whether the harpoons take hold, and how far the robotic lander sinks into the surface should all become known as events unfold today. "

The harpoons didn't fire. The thruster that counters the harpoon force didn't fire. The lander didn't start up correctly. That's a lot of errors for a spacecraft. I wonder if the harsh electrical environment of a comet, denied by the establishment, caused those failures. The biggest error might be the picture itself which clearly portrays the comet as a dirty snowball. Contrast that with the first picture from the lander which shows the comet looks very much like the moon.

The pins that were supposed to blow the cover off the thruster failed to operate. I haven't heard anything about the ice screws yet. They might push the lander off the comet. Now we learn Philae bounced off the hard surface of the comet. This story says they don't know if the screws deployed, then it says the screws are holding the lander down. I don't think they know.

"We had fluctuations in the radio link, but it always came back again."

More electrical problems. 

"'Some of the details indicate the lander may have lifted off again, it is bouncing. 

'Two hours later, this stopped. We may have landed not once, but twice.'" 

It bounced for two hours? 

"However, while the lander has touched down on the comet using its harpoons, scientists said that it had not yet deployed its anchors which meant that it was not completely attached to the surface.

The surface was much softer than they expected, so there were some concerns that it was not securely fixed on the comet – although from a software point of view things seemed to be fine.

Engineers will attempt to fire the anchors again soon in order to keep Philae attached to the surface of the comet. "

So it's not anchored at all. Firing those anchors may push it off. 

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