The robot Philae has already passed its first 24 hours in the 67P / Churyumov Gerasimenko, where it landed on Wednesday after a ten years aboard the ship Rosetta and after a thrilling descent of seven hours. The robot to work got when he arrived at the comet, but the place where you are now, that is not their chosen researchers is hindering its scientific mission because is not providing enough light to recharge its solar batteries.
The robot, which is “stable” and sending “lots of fantastic data ‘, according to officials of the mission, should have been anchored in the first point at which alighted. However, to not deploy harpoons that had fastened, gave several jumps, so that was moving.
According to data collected by the instruments, landed in three places , at 16:33, 18:26 and 18:33 hours respectively. Therefore, but from an operational point of view it is working properly, there is concern about the mission of the robot over time.
Glad, although visibly tired because they spent the night analyzing data to try to determine the exact location where the robot is and find out why no harpoons, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) returned to appear on Thursday to explain both setbacks were activated are emerging as achievements.
“Yesterday we said that we had landed twice. Actually there were three “, again joking Ulamec Stephan, head of the robot Philae , which admitted that still do not know why they did not deploy harpoons. Upon landing, the robot was traveling at a speed of one meter per second.
Stable, but without restraint
The communication between the robot and the sensor works well, working instruments and transmit data correctly, and although it is not anchored to the surface, Philae seems stable, at a point which is believed to be a mile away from the initial landing site. However, scientists said that do not know where exactly.
The main problem with the new location is too dark, so you can not feed the solar panels that will burden their battery solar, which are the you have to use after primary lithium battery with which he maneuvers the spacecraft separation of Rosetta and the first experiments were exhausted. This primary battery will last 60 hours.
The plan was to carry his solar panels to work for about three months, from the same site, which would have been anchored with harpoons. Six hours of light daily would receive in the Agilkia point (chosen for landing) was one of the decisive scientists selected him among the dozen places shuffled factors. The new site is believed to receive a little over an hour of light, insufficient time for recharging.
If the robot will run out of energy and will go out, a temporary blackout that would not result in the death of the mission . As the scientists explained, it might be possible that as the comet was approaching the Sun, its batteries were recharged to receive more light and Philae is again awakening.
Although Ulamec explained that it is technically possible to try to move the robot to a more favorable area for now discarded if they do they do not know, taking another leap would be placed in a more suitable area. Furthermore, he believes that do not have enough time and energy to plan strategy.
Do not use drill point
The work that was taking place during this first phase of experiments will run for a total two and a half days include taking a panoramic image of the landing site, which has already sent, analysis of the composition of the comet’s surface and use a drill that incorporates to sample to a depth of up to 23 centimeters. The robot is carrying a laboratory that allows you to analyze their molecular composition.
However, Ulamec explained that opt for caution and, at least in the next few hours, do not expect to use the drill, since the failure be anchored to the robot, could affect its stability.
“do not have all the answers. We are considering what steps to take in the coming hours or days. We have room for some flexibility, “added the French scientist Jean-Pierre Bibring.
Bibring stressed how good is transmitting data, the quality of the images and the great success that it landed on a comet . Therefore, he asked not to focus on the errors: “Wednesday was an amazing day but today will be even better.”
“We have been very busy at night collecting the robot images taken during descent and after landing, and analyzing. We are impressed by the quality of the pictures you are sending “, said on his part Stefano Mottola, head scientist Rolis tool Philae .
Probe Rosetta and the robot Philae are about 510 million kilometers away from Earth, between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. During the ten years that have elapsed since the release, they have traveled a total of 6,400 million miles through the solar system. With this mission, scientists hope to better understand issues such as the formation of the planets and the origin of water on Earth.
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