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Its battery dead, the European lander is lost in a crater somewhere on a huge comet. But the orbiter that brought it there still has plenty of science left to do.
As of Saturday morning, the Philae lander is in a digital coma somewhere on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But even if the history-making little robot never wakes again, the Rosetta mission and the orbiter of the same name still have a long journey ahead of them.
The plan was for Philae to land at a targeted site on the comet, firing harpoons into the surface of the icy rock to keep itself locked in place for a long trip around the sun. The strong grip was particularly important since a comet this size has only a tiny fraction of the gravity of a place like Earth, leaving little Philae at risk of floating off into space.
But when showtime came, there were problems with Philae’s downward thrusters and with firing the harpoons. The European Space Agency reports that the lander bounced off the surface of the comet twice and eventually landed somewhere else without much access to the sunlight its solar panels need to keep it functioning.
Friday evening, Philae used its remaining energy to upload all its data before going into hibernation mode. There was a time slot early this morning during which, the ESA had reported, communication with the lander was possible, but that time has now come and gone.
Still, Rosetta remains.
Even if Philae stays lost in a comet crater for the next year, the orbiter that traveled almost half a billion miles to get to this point will continue to orbit the comet and its lost lander.
Right now, Rosetta has been pulling out to a 30 kilometer orbit of the comet. It will come closer again early next month to get more details on the comet — some of its flybys will be as close as 8 kilometers to the comet. There’s a whole lot of potential science and data about comets, planets and our solar system packed in that process, building up to the trio’s closest encounter with the sun, next August.
Before that point there may also be better opportunities to rouse Philae.
The fact that a probe reached a comet and actually landed on it is itself a great achievement. Clearly, this took time and did not happen immediately. Similarly, I am certain, it might take time but there is more to it which will happen!
Yeah, i agree with you. At least ESA successfully done this landing in first attempt :).
One thing I’m confused about. The option of viewing away from Rosetta. Is this just a hypothetical vision we’re seeing in this video? Are they able to calculate what opportunities will come to fuel the solar panels; and if so, how many?
I grew up in Texas City, Texas. School Field Trips to Johnson Space Center were almost annually! And I always anticipated going there, even more than going to Astroworld to ride that wooden roller coaster! We had family friends, Jim and Olga Morris, working at JSC. Olga was, actually, one of the lab scientists that worked on the moon rocks when they brought those back! Always so fascinating to see things up close!
Thanks for viewing post :). Yeah , this is the hypothetical vision that we are seeing in this video. Actually, there is no camera for capturing Rosetta ‘s pictures itself.
Also there is no fixed date or time for regaining Philae’s battery 🙂