The strength of cometary surface material: Relevance of deep impact results for philae landing on a comet

Autor: J. Biele, S. Ulamec, L. Richter, E. Kührt, J. Knollenberg, D. Möhlmann, the Philae Team
Rok vydání: 2009
Předmět:
Zdroj: Deep Impact as a World Observatory Event: Synergies in Space, Time, and Wavelength ISBN: 9783540769583
Popis: We discuss the Deep Impact estimates of strength of the surface material of comet Tempel 1. It appears doubtful that the tensile strength is as low as originally published. The method applied neglects the weakening by the shock wave, the acceleration by gas and the ongoing discussion whether gravity or strength craters are consistent with the observations. The various definitions of strength (tensile, shear, compressive, dynamic strength) and its size-dependency are discussed. Even for extremely low cohesion, a lower limit of ≈ 1 kPa for the quasi-static compressive strength at dm-scales is derived; far more likely is a compressive strength of the order of ≈ 10 kPa for very soft comet surfaces. The Rosetta lander, Philae, will touchdown on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. A soft comet surface with a compressive strength ⩾ 4 kPa indeed facilitates landing and leads to a penetration of the order of only 20 cm according to our model calculations.
Databáze: OpenAIRE