Space & Astronomy

Philae mission officially comes to a close

By T.K. Randall
July 27, 2016

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) In what has turned out to be a sad ending for the little probe which made history when it became the first spacecraft ever to land on a comet back in 2014, scientists at ESA have decided to cease all further attempts to communicate with Philae so as to maintain Rosetta's remaining power reserves.

The mission, though highly successful, was fraught with problems from the beginning after the probe bounced off the comet on landing and ended up in the shadows where its solar panels couldn't get enough sunlight to generate the power needed to keep it going properly.

Within the space of only 57 hours the probe fell silent, however six months later, as the comet reached its closest approach to the sun, Philae was able to power itself back up for a short time.Now though, after a whole year without contact, the probe has been declared officially dead.

It's time for me to say goodbye. Tomorrow, the unit on @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever...

— Philae Lander (@Philae2014) July 26, 2016

"It's sort of the end of an era. They've finally pulled Philae's life support," said Professor Monica Grady from the Open University. "Realistically, we've known for about a year that there wasn't going to be any further communication with Philae, although we kept hoping."

"Rosetta is so far away, it needs all the power it can get because the solar panels are not getting enough energy from the sun. So every unnecessary bit of power has to be switched off."

Source: BT.com

Tags: Philae, Rosetta, Comet