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The putative mechanical strength of comet surface material applied to landing on a comet

Kührt, Ekkehard; Ulamec, Stephan; Biele, Jens +3 more

The comet lander PHILAE (part of the ESA mission ROSETTA) is going to touch down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. Landing dynamics depend on the mechanical strength of the surface material: in an extremely soft material, the lander (100 kg, 1 m/s touch-down velocity) may sink in too deep for successful operation while on a very hard sur…