Philae To Begin Drilling After Rougher-Than-Originally-Believed Landing

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Just two days after its dramatic arrival on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, ESA is concerned that the Philae lander may only have a few hours of power left, prompting them to make the bold decision to begin drilling even though doing so could dislodge the probe from the surface of the comet.
According to BBC News science correspondent Jonathan Amos, the agency’s Philae team fears the lander could run out of usable power by the end of the day, and as such plan to upload a new set of commands to instruct it to deploy its drill. They hope that it will be able to obtain and analyze samples from 67P/C-G before it is forced to cease operations.
Deploying the drill is a rather risky proposition because, as ABC News reporter Alyssa Newcomb and Reuters writer Maria Sheahan explained on Thursday, the landing did not go as smoothly as initially believed – harpoons designed to anchor Philae to the surface did not fire as originally planned, and the probe actually bounced twice before coming to rest.
The combination of the anchoring harpoon failure and the low gravity of the comet caused Philae to ricochet off the comet’s surface, flying up to one kilometer (0.6 miles) above the surface and downrange, NASA explained in a statement Thursday. Two hours later, it touched down again, bouncing a second time before finally settling down on the surface at 10 am PST (1pm EST).
To further complicate matters, the area where the lander finally came to rest is covered in shadows. As a result, its solar panels, which were intended to power Philae when its batteries expire on Friday, are only receiving one and a half hours of sunlight per day instead of the anticipated six to seven, Sheahan explained. It also appears to have just two of its three feet on the ground, she added, “raising questions about whether it can drill without tipping over” or becoming dislodged completely from 67P/C-G.
Beyond that, Philae is “doing a marvelous job” and “working very well,” said Paolo Ferri, ESA’s head of mission operations at the European Space Operations Center, Darmstadt, Germany. It is currently stable, and eight of its 10 instruments have already started sending back data, NASA said. Newcomb added that it has also sent back the first close-up panoramic images of the comet’s surface, showing the rocky landscape of 67P/C-G.
Rosetta, the orbiter that transported Philae to the comet, is scheduled to spend the next several months analyzing the comet, Newcomb said. It will maintain orbit around the comet through the end of 2015, using a suite of 16 instruments to perform ongoing analysis of the comet as it approaches the sun, and then moves further out into deep space.
The ESA’s ambitious, historic comet-landing mission began 10 years ago with the March 2004 launch of Rosetta. The spacecraft spent a total of 957 days in a hibernation-like state as it traveled through space, and was reactivated in January in order to prepare for an August arrival in orbit around comet 67P/C-G.
Philae separated from Rosetta early Wednesday morning, beginning a seven hour descent onto the comet’s surface that culminated when the ESA confirmed it had received a signal from the lander shortly after 11am EST. Shortly thereafter, the first data from its instruments were transmitted to the Philae Science, Operations and Navigation Centre at France’s CNES space agency in Toulouse, officials at the agency said.
“Our ambitious Rosetta mission has secured a place in the history books: not only is it the first to rendezvous with and orbit a comet, but it is now also the first to deliver a lander to a comet’s surface,” Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the ESA, said in a statement Wednesday. “With Rosetta we are opening a door to the origin of planet Earth and fostering a better understanding of our future. ESA and its Rosetta mission partners have achieved something extraordinary today.”
“After more than 10 years traveling through space, we’re now making the best ever scientific analysis of one of the oldest remnants of our Solar System,” added Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. “Decades of preparation have paved the way for today’s success, ensuring that Rosetta continues to be a game-changer in cometary science and space exploration.”
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