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Rosetta’s Comet Lander Will Revive After Bumpy Touchdown, Scientists Say
Saturday, December 20, 2014 2:25
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| The ESA comet lander Philae came to rest between two shadowed cliffs, limiting the sunlight hitting the lander’s solar panels, but scientists hope the lander can be revived by February as more light arrives. This image of the comet’s surface is a mosaic of four taken by Rosetta’s navigation camera on December 10. |
Hopes rise for reviving the hibernating lander’s solar power as comet receives more sunlight. Excerpt from news.nationalgeographic.comSAN FRANCISCO—Fear not for Philae: The little lost lander could reawaken as soon as February, the Rosetta mission team said Wednesday. Increasing sunlight almost guarantees an end to the probe’s current hibernation on a comet racing toward the sun.
The European Space Agency’s $1.75-billion mission sent the lander to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12 in an audacious, if bumpy, touchdown on the double-lobed comet. It was the first soft landing attempt on a comet.
The lander bounced after an anchoring harpoon failed to fire, turning initial elation to disappointment. After a two-hour bounce, Philae came to rest with one of its three feet planted on the comet and the others angled between two shadowed cliffs.
Those cliffs allow, for now, only 4 hours and 33 minutes of uninterrupted sunlight per day to the probe’s solar panels, not enough to restart it. But the mission team announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting that more sunshine is on the way.
Source: http://www.ascensionearth2012.org/2014/12/rosettas-comet-lander-will-revive-after.html
