“We have activated the drill. It’s started to drill. Then we lost contact again because the orbiter is below the horizon again,” said Dr Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager.
“We are not sure whether the batteries will still have enough energy to transmit the data when we get in contact later this evening. Around midnight we should know.”
Philae appears to be stuck under a cliff
The comet is a remnant from the early solar system and may hold clues about how life on Earth began.
Many scientists believe that comets were the driving force behind life on Earth, bringing water and amino acids to the planet during the ‘bombardment phase’ around four billion years ago.
If the scientists do not manage to re-establish the link with the probe, there is a faint possibility that the solar panels will begin working again when the comet’s orbit brings it closer to the Sun.
“We can only hope that as we approach the Sun, maybe in August, if we don’t have dust or a huge coma blocking the Sun, then perhaps there would be a chance we could come back and at least see how the lander is doing,” said Valentina Lommats of the German Space Agency.
“So cross your fingers but perhaps we will hear something from the lander again. It looks a bit bad. But we can always hope.”
Crucially, the team has still not located the lander. On Thursday the team said they believed Philae had bounced twice before settling in a crater to the East of the original landing site. However scans of the area by the OSIRIS camera on board Rosetta failed to locate the probe. Rosetta has now began scanning areas to the East of the landing site.
The original landing site. Scientists now think the probe is somewhere to the west of the mark
If Philae does become operational again, scientists plan to try and rotate the lander so that the biggest solar panel is pointing more directly at The Sun.
“This would increase the chance that at a later stage the lander could wake up and start talking again,” said Dr Ulamec.
“Well we can still hope that at a later stage. The comet is approaching the sun so the solar power is increasing so at some stage we may wake up again and establish communications link.”
However scientists were confident that they had collected a huge amount of a data, around 90 per cent of what they were hoping for before the solar panels were to extend the mission.
And, even if Philae’s job is finished, the Rosetta mission is set to continue.
Rosetta will then stay alongside the comet as it moves closer to the Sun. Instruments on board will analyse the gases of the tail; probe the comets interior; measure dust grains and study its atmosphere and gravity.
The comet will reach its closest distance to the Sun on 13 August 2015 at about 115 million miles, roughly between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Even if the lander was still on the comet by then its instruments will have been rendered useless due to the heat of the Sun.
“This mission is already fantastic,” said Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations director,
“Let’s stop looking at what things we could have done. Let’s look at what we have achieved. This is unique and will be unique forever let’s not forget this.”
And emotional Andrea Accomazzo at the control centre in Darmstadt, Germany
Project scientist Matt Taylor said: “We are on the cutting edge of science. Just wait and hang in there. It’s going to be fantastic."
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