The Philae lander fell silent soon after landing on a comet, as batteries failed, quickly ending the first-ever mission to the surface of a comet. The vehicle lost communication with Earth on November 15.
Harpoons ejected from the lander were designed to hook into the surface, preventing the spacecraft from bouncing back after touchdown. Those anchors failed to grasp onto the comet, and the lander bounced twice off the surface, before coming to rest 0.6 miles away from the planned landing spot.
One challenge facing mission planner at the European Space Agency (ESA) is that the landing craft may have have settled in a dark crater on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The vehicle is currently in hibernation mode, and may never be able to gather enough sunlight to resume operations.
"The possibility that this may happen was boosted this evening when mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander's main body, to which the solar panels are fixed. This may have exposed more panel area to sunlight," ESA mission planners wrote on the official mission blog.
The Rosetta comet-chasing observatory was launched, locked together with the Philae lander, in 2004. The lander transmitted pictures and other data to Rosetta, which was then relayed to Earth.
Philae transmitted data immediately upon touching down on the comet before energy drained from internal batteries.
"While descent images show that the surface of the comet is covered by dust and debris ranging from millimeter to meter sizes, panoramic images show layered walls of harder-looking material," program managers reported.
The comet landing mission lasted just 57 hours from the time the lander separated from Rosetta to the time communications were lost. At one point, the tiny lander briefly regained communications with the larger observatory, and was able to return all of the data collected during approach. Mission managers rolled the body of the spacecraft by 35 degrees, and lifted the body about an inch-and-a-half off the surface, in order to collect more sunlight.
Philae made a harder-than-expected landing on the surface of the comet, but was able to complete the first battery of observations, and relay them back to Earth. Mission planners at ESA will continue to scout locations on the comets, in order to determine the precise final resting spot of the lander.
Rosetta will continue its mission, as it becomes the first spacecraft ever to follow a comet as it travels around the Sun. Closest approach of the body to the Sun will take place on August 13, 2015.
