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| Philae touchdown site seen by Rosetta’s navigation camera. The first image in this sequence was taken on 12 November at 15:30 UTC, just before the lander’s first touchdown; the second image was taken at 15:35 UTC, right after touchdown. The large red circle indicates the position of the shadow of the dust cloud caused by the landing. The third image in the sequence is the same as the second, with the likely position of Philae and its shadow highlighted. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM; pre-processed by Mikel Catania |
The European Space Agency released images of the Philae probe’s bounce that occurred during its soft-landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko last week.
Philae bounced twice after its first touchdown on the near-gravitation-less comet. The first bounce was about 1 kilometer above the comet’s surface and downrange from the designated landing site. A second, lesser bounce occurred, again sending it airborne. Philae then came to an uncontrolled rest on the comet with at least one landing foot pointing outward rather than down towards the comet’s surface. The bounce was caused by the failure of the probe’s two harpoons to fire and reel the spacecraft into a proper landing position on the comet’s surface. |
| Rosetta’s lander Philae is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two CIVA images confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image is a two-image mosaic. Credit: ESA |
After the comet landing, the Philae went into hibernation because its solar panels are not in the correct angle to be adequately charged by the Sun’s rays. However, ESA scientists were able to command the lander to lift its body by about 4 centimeters and rotate about 35 degrees in an attempt to receive more solar energy to help mitigate these landing misfortunes. But as the last science data fed back to Earth, Philae’s power rapidly depleted, ESA reported. For the remainder of the mission, no contact will be possible with Philae unless sufficient sunlight falls on its solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up.
Before Philae went into hibernation, Rosetta, the spacecraft orbiting the comet and acting as a communications relay from Philae to Earth, was able to re-established contact with the probe for about two hours on Friday. This communication was long enough time for the probe to transmit its housekeeping and science date back to Earth.
The Rosetta mission was launched over a decade ago from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. During this long voyage, Rosetta had to make three gravitational sling shot maneuvers around the Earth and one around Mars to gain enough speed to catch up with Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Rosetta neared the icy comet on August 6, 2014. After several months of maneuvering the spacecraft into a precise orbit around the comet, Rosetta launched its Philae probe on Wednesday at 4:03 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (09:03 GMT).
Rosetta is the first mission ever to orbit a comet’s nucleus and soft-land a probe on its surface. Rosetta will also be the first spacecraft to fly alongside a comet as it heads towards the inner Solar System, observing how a frozen comet is transformed by the warmth of the Sun. By studying the nature of the comet’s dust and gas, scientists hope that the Rosetta mission will help them understand more about the role of comets in the evolution of the Solar System.
