Goodbye Philae: Sad farewell as comet lander runs out of power
BERLIN: The Philae lander sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov– Gerasimenko has run out of power after a successful lastditch attempt to nudge it into better sunlight apparently came too late to charge its batteries and keep systems up and running.
Mission controllers for the Rosetta mission had said on Friday that they were preparing to “hop” the robotic probe in a hope it would settle in a sunnier spot on the comet’s surface.
Later came a promising announcement. “My rotation was successful (35 degrees). Looks like a whole new comet from this angle,” read a message posted on the lander’s official Twitter account. Earlier the scientists tweeted: “First comet drilling is a fact!” But afterwards the Philae mission tweeted: .@ESA_Rosetta I’m feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap… #CometLanding
Philae had apparently been successful in shifting position to gives its shaded solar panels a better chance of catching sunlight. But the moment of success was followed by an announcement that it would have to use up its last battery power in sending a final burst of data back to Earth.
If the batteries are not charged the lander goes into hibernation. Without sufficient sunlight on the solar panels the mission shuts down.
The lander’s legs have a builtin spring action. Commands were uploaded on Friday night to fire them, scientists said, warning there was no guarantee of success. Another strategy under discussion was to spin up an internal flywheel that could make Philae cartwheel out of its predicament but also risked soaking up the last of its battery power.
Early on Saturday came an announcement that Philae was on the move: I just started lifting myself up a little and will now rotate to try and optimize the solar power!
Since its triple touchdown on Wednesday the spacecraft had been resting on its side, lodged in the shadows of a cliff or large boulder.
On Thursday the lander sent back historic first images taken from the surface of a comet. These showed that after its bumpy landing one of its legs was sticking up into space rather than in contact with the surface, raising doubts about whether there was enough spring in Philae’s step to achieve the hop.