First landing(s) on a comet - Lessons learned

Kurzfassung

The Philae lander, part of the Rosetta mission to investigate comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, was delivered to the cometary surface in November 2014. Here we report the lessons learned of this endeavour - from design, building, test, in-flight operations, on-comet operational planning and landing. We give an update to the precise circumstances of the multiple landings of Philae, based on engineering data in conjunction with operational instrument data and simulations. These data also provide information on the mechanical properties of the comet surface.