ESA: Philae comet lander's battery has died
Digital Reporter
Saturday, November 15, 2014, 12:08 PM - The now-famed Philae comet lander is out of communication, as it appears its battery has died.
The lander, which descended to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last week, landed poorly, when its tethering harpoon system failed. It bounced twice, and came to rest in the shadow of a rock, limiting the amount of energy its solar panels receive.
The European Space Agency tried a rotating operation to wiggle Philae to a more favourable position, but received no signals from the probe during a Saturday morning check in.
Pioneering @Philae2014 completes primary science mission before hibernation #cometlanding https://t.co/lVQHBc9GLo pic.twitter.com/KXeM5f5RaX
— ESA (@esa) November 15, 2014
Still, the agency did say they managed to make one last contact with the rover on Friday night, receiving valuable information.
"Despite the unplanned series of three touchdowns, all of our instruments could be operated and now it’s time to see what we’ve got," said the ESA's Stephan Ulamec, the lander manager at the DLR German Aerospace Agency in a website update.
The rotating operation may eventually bear fruit, but for now, officials are saying it could be days or weeks before the batteries have charged enough to allow further transmissions.
"We still hope that at a later stage of the mission, perhaps when we are nearer to the Sun, that we might have enough solar illumination to wake up the lander and re-establish communication," Ulamec says.
With files from the Associated Press
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