Although the exact location of the Philae lander is still unconfirmed, new video released today by the European Space Agency shows the spacecraft touched down near the precise spot on a comet where it was supposed to land before it bounced twice and disappeared from view.
Mission controllers said they still aren't sure of the exact location of the lander but believe it landed close to a rocky wall -- obscuring its solar panels from getting the necessary sunlight to keep the spacecraft active.
The battery issue is the latest setback for the lander, which had three touchdowns before coming to rest on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday after a 10-year, 4 billion-mile journey.
The washing machine sized spacecraft's harpoons also failed to fire, preventing it from anchoring itself to the surface of the comet. Philae's precise location is also unknown and officials said they're working to pinpoint where it landed.
With just 1.5 hours of sunlight getting to Philae each day, mission controllers said they will have to carefully budget time for science experiments conducted off of the secondary battery.
If Philae had landed perfectly in its chosen site on the 2.5-mile wide comet, its solar panels would have been able to catch nearly seven hours of sunlight per the 12.4 hour comet day.
The lander began work today, drilling into the comet's surface with the goal of collecting samples and data that can be analyzed to learn more about the formation of the solar system nearly five billion years ago.
"It started to drill but then we lost contact again...We are not sure whether the batteries still have enough energy," Stephan Ulamec, head of operations for the lander, said.
Ulamec said the ESA team should get more data from Philae later today when the lander has its next point of contact around 4pm ET.
Even if Philae's battery runs out of power, as it is expected to in the next day, the lander will remain in hibernation mode on the comet.
Ulamec said it's feasible Philae would be able to catch enough light to wake up again when the comet gets closer to the sun during its 6.5 year orbit.
The goal of the ambitious $1.6 billion mission is to glean new insights into comets and other celestial objects -- and answer questions about the origins of life on Earth.
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