Little lander that could—the legacy of Philae 18 April 2016, by Tomasz Nowakowski, Astrowatch.net

"Unfortunately, chances to re-establish contact are very low. We are getting too far from the sun again," Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), told Astrowatch.net.

The last images of Philae will probably be acquired later this year, when the Rosetta orbiter will image the lander during close fly-bys.

"Rosetta is operational till September, and we hope to receive informative images of the lander from the orbiter camera," Ulamec said.

Despite its short life on the comet, Philae accomplished much, and is leaving a rich legacy of Philae, the little lander that was declared lost by data that could come in handy during future to the European Space Agency (ESA), has achieved small icy bodies. a lot despite its relatively short operational life on the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov- The little probe was the first to land on a comet's Gerasimenko. Future comet landing missions surface and carry out measurements there. The could be built upon the legacy that this small, lander conducted over 60 hours of research with its wayward probe leaves behind. instruments, acquired images, was able to sense molecules and tried to hammer the unexpectedly The box-shaped lander was a part of ESA's hard cometary surface. Rosetta mission, launched on Mar. 2, 2004. Philae accomplished its spectacular comet landing on "Philae was able to conduct the first-ever Nov. 12, 2014, but went silent three days later. The measurements from the surface of a comet. Some lander made contact on June 13, 2015 and sent its of the results include the indication that the comet 'health' data. According to ESA, the lander surface is non-magnetic; high-resolution camera established contact with the ground team seven images from the surface material; analyses and the more times, but these contacts were erratic and detection of rich organic chemistry; measurements unpredictable. The probe has remained silent since of the physical properties of the surface material July 9, 2015 and the probability of re-establishing and measurements of the internal structure by contact with Philae is currently almost zero. radar sounding," Ulamec said.

The spacecraft is probably covered with dust in its The scientists studying the results provided by shaded location, not receiving enough sunlight to Philae agree that its measurements offer a unique start warming up to operational status. Thus, it is in insight into the composition and, in particular, the a state of permanent hibernation. There were water content and porosity of the comet mantle. hopes that Philae would wake up again when the The researchers were also able to map out the comet moved closer to the sun ahead of perihelion global dust transport on the surface of on Aug. 13, 2015. However, even with the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. improved thermal conditions, no further contacts were made. Even Philae's landing event delivered crucial information that could be useful for similar

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endeavors in the future. The spacecraft failed to fire its harpoons and lock itself onto the surface of the comet after its descent, bouncing from its initial touchdown point. It made contact with the comet four times during its additional flight across the small comet lobe.

"We learned that the cometary surface, at least where Philae landed, was quite hard, and, thus, bouncing is more of a problem than, e.g., sinking into the surface dust. Having a redundant system and for example, a large primary battery, has proven to be the right strategy," Ulamec said.

Philae sets the path for similar comet exploration missions. However, Ulamec admitted that much more could be achieved by sample-return probes.

"The concept of Philae was good. Future missions will make use of newer technologies, allowing, for example, improved miniaturization of instruments or more powerful computers. The next big step in cometary science may become sample return. There is no way to perform in-situ analyses as sophisticated as in laboratories on Earth," he concluded.

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