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ESA Rosetta: Philae has successfully landed on comet 67P!


Eudemon

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So the Philae lander has ran out of power..

 

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Before it went for its nap, the crew tried to move it slightly so it would get more sunlight on the solar panels, but by the looks of it, if nothing is heard from Philae in the next few days (I guess) we'll have to wait until August 2015 - when the comet will be closer to the Sun than Earth, charging the batteries via solar power.

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It's solar powered, so would come online again when it's in the right spot

 

I already mentioned that. It's initial batteries provide power for 2 days, and afterwards the solar panels are supposed to charge up a secondary battery and keep it powered for months. However Philae landed in a dark spot and isn't receiving enough sunlight, therefore it's powered down and according to the European Space Agency could remain this way for some time, as I mentioned they must be referring to the comet coming closer to the Sun next year.

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Didn't it do a :chairfall: and land on it's side after the 1km bounce?

 

I was reading earlier, apparently it did bounce after the initial impact and if I remember correctly ended up like 500 metres away from where they were aiming, stuck behind a cliff blocking the sunlight :hmmm:

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I'm still amazed at the fact it bounced about a km high and still managed to hit the comet again, I mean that bounce could easily have launched it out into space. About the batteries, there was a mention about it possibly being able to grab some solar power this morning but if nothing has come of that then it's clearly in a well shaded area and we may not hear from Philae again until August 2015 or perhaps even never again. :(

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From the ESA statement: "Given the low recharge current coming from the solar panels at this time, it is unlikely that contact will be re-established with the lander in the near future."

 

It doesn't look good. It's only getting 90 minutes of sunlight per day, and I think it needs like 5-7 hours, something like that.

 

Rosetta will be passing over on Monday, so we'll maybe get an update on the status of Philae. Hope it wakes up, I was enjoying it's tweets.

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I was just reading that but isn't that only the first landing hit and the subsequent bounce back up?

 

That's what I was thinking too, I wonder what intervals the pictures were taken in, or maybe they just took pictures after the initial landing :hmmm: Or maybe this is Philae's current resting spot. :hmmm:

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Man you'd hate for that to be your fault. Not only did Philae end up not where it was supposed to, but it's also now shutdown, because it isn't getting the sunlight that it probably would have gotten (if it landed in the right place) which would have kept Philae powered up. :lol:

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