Comet lander Philae gets down to some serious science, while a last-ditch maneuver may save it from the looming risk of power loss
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Friday, November 14, 2014, 5:38 PM - With the threat of power-loss looming large, the ESA's tiny Philae lander has gotten down to business on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, breaking out its tools to perform some serious science.
Although the ESA is reporting that Philae is safe on the surface of its comet target right now, the incredible triple-landing it performed on Wednesday morning has apparently left it in a precarious position that may end its mission far sooner than planned.
While the mission team still isn't sure exactly where the lander ended up, what they do know is that Philae came to rest in the shadow of a cliff, possibly with only two of its feet actually touching the surface. While the position doesn't necessarily prevent them from conducting the probe's mission, unfortunately, this location is only getting about 1.5 hours of sunlight each 'day' and this will be not enough to recharge its batteries.
With that concern in mind, the team wasted very little time in getting the probe started on its science mission.
According to the ESA Rosetta blog:
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| As reported by Stefan Ulamec, the lander manager from DLR, last night a sequence of commands to operate a number of instruments was uploaded to the lander. The resulting data were downlinked earlier today and the scientists are currently analysing them and trying to figure out what they mean.
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Hopefully, the data from the CONSERT instruments - located on both Rosetta and Philae and used to beam radio waves through the comet to determine what its interior looks like - along with images from Rosetta's hi-res OSIRIS camera, will be able to help locate the lander, but it may be a moot point for now. If Philae fails to get enough sunshine, the Rosetta team will be forced to put the robot into 'hibernation mode' - essentially shut the lander down until such time as more sunlight becomes available at its location.
There is some good news in all of this, though.
According to the ESA, the science team is already poring over data returned by Philae earlier today, with more hopefully on the way tonight. So, there will definitely be some science results from the mission so far.
Also, Comet 67P is currently inbound on its orbit around the Sun. That means there's a good chance that Philae's location will receive more sunlight with time, and if the probe is still alive, that will mean more energy collected by its solar panels, and the potential for it to wake up for more science.
In the mean time, the latest news from the Rosetta team is that they will attempt a 'turning maneuver' with Philae, which could potentially stave off this power-loss issue.
As the Rosetta blog reports:
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| The aim will be to rotate Philae's main body in the hopes of exposing one of the larger solar panels to the meagre sunlight that is falling on one of the smaller ones.
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