The European Space Agency's (ESA) little Philae has gone to sleep for the moment on the surface of Comet 67p, but the very fact it is on the back of this monster rock 300 million mile away as it careens towards the sun is nothing but amazing. After a bumpy landing and bad placement on the comet's surface, the lander's batteries slowed died due to a lack of solar energy. Luckily, the lander had already sent back the data it was supposed to measure for ESA scientists to analyze. ESA's
mission website stated:
From now on, no contact will be possible unless sufficient sunlight
falls on the solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up. The
possibility that this may happen later in the mission was boosted when
mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander’s main body with
its fixed solar panels. This should have exposed more panel area to
sunlight.
In the meantime, Rosetta will continue to continue to orbit the comet and send back more data on the comet for continued analysis. The adventure continues.
Top Image: Panoramic shot from Philae from the surface of
Comet 67p. The three feet of Philae’s landing gear can be seen in some
of the frames.
Bottom Image: Philae's scientific instruments.
Image Credit: ESA
