Philae | World Tech Today

The Philae lander that was delivered to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta orbiter still remains lost to scientists on Earth, but they now have good reasons to believe that the robot might get enough sunlight to boot it up as early as March before trying to see if it could reestablish some communication link with Rosetta; and by May or June, it should have been sufficiently booted up to resume work again.

“We are already discussing and preparing which instruments should be operated for how long,” project scientist Stephan Ulamec.

The Philae went silent and into hibernation mode when it landed roughly on the surface of Comet 67P; however, its exact landing spot is currently unknown but it is believed to be some dark spot behind some cliff where sunlight is inaccessible – rendering it unable to recharge its batteries for normal functions.

Now, scientists are beginning to think there might be some positive side to the current location of the Philae. It is now understood that while the Philae lander was meant to land at a sunny portion of Comet 67P, the robot would have become too hot to survive as the comet neared the sun by March if it had landed at the expected sunny location.

However, its current location even though still unknown is believed to be some cool dark place behind some cliff, and that means it is in some cool resting place. The approach of the comet to the sun by March should afford it some exposure to sunlight, prompting it to wake up after its batteries are sufficiently recharged.

Scientists expect the comet to start behaving in new and exciting ways as it heats up and releases more of its frozen molecules, so Philae might get to take some pretty interesting readings.

Fancy became reality on Wednesday. Though launched ten years ago, The European Space Agency’s Philae lander has sent back first ever images from the surface of the comet 67P.

The landing was not a smooth landing, but still it adds a feather to the European Space Agency as this is the first time a traveller landed on the comet without getting crashed.

Philae is now stable enough to send back data to the scientists. It has travelled almost 6 billion kilometres to land on the comet 67P.

There was probability of Philae getting bounced as there is very less gravity in the comet 67P. But scientists managed to anchor harpoons on the comet to fix the spacecraft on to the surface of the comet.

“So maybe we didn’t land once — we landed twice,” Philae lander manager Stephan Ulamec said. “Did we land in a soft sandbox or is there something else happening? We don’t fully understand what happened.”

Basically Philae is a robotic probe of a fridge size. Rosetta spacecraft is its mother ship. After seven hours of anxious waiting, Philae got separated from the mother spacecraft Rosette and landed on 67P, the comet that orbits around the Sun more than 510 million miles away towards the direction of the Sagittarius constellation.

Dr Daniel Brown, an astronomer from Nottingham Trent University said, “Philae has been on the comet for just one day, but the sense of tension and awe it has created has been remarkable.

“It is a huge relief to hear that Philae is still functioning and gathering data and images. The amount of emotion we have seen from the team since the landing shows that science does not come from the head alone, but from the heart and soul too.

“Space and planetary exploration is touching the very core of what we are about, challenging the impossible and shedding light on the unknown.

“One look at the images sent back from Rosetta and Philae confirm this.”

There was also a possibility that the charge of Philae will get drained as it had only 50 hrs of charge. If the charge would have finished, then Philae would have gone to hibernation.

This mission was accomplished with a consortium of partners including NASA. The entire world is now waiting to see what results Philae brings from 67P.

Philae Comet 67P lander could wake up by June from its current lost location

Philae Lander: Rosette Mission sends first images from comet 67P [photos]