On the 12th of November humanity succeeded for the first time in landing an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of a comet. The European Space Agency (ESA)’s robotic probe “Philae”, landed on the surface of the comet 67P after almost 10 years of travelling through the solar system. YTN News reported that the probe had already started its mission of digging into the comet’s surface to acquire dirt samples.
However, the team had run into an unexpected problem of the probe’s battery being discharged. Though Philae had landed safely, one of its legs is suspended in the air, leaving the probe in a rather awkward position to start work. ESA scientists however reported that the probe had no problems drilling as was feared and had already succeeded in drilling about 25 centimeters into the surface.
All of a sudden, while drilling, ESA lost contact with the probe completely and are currently unable to receive updates from the robot. Stephen Ulamek, the managing supervisor of the Philae project noted that they can’t even find out whether the probe had acquired the dirt sample or if it even started the analysis.
ESA scientists noted that even if the probe had acquired the sample that they wanted, it is still uncertain whether Philae still has enough energy to send the data back to Earth for further research. The head of the project noted that the probe had landed on a point that was somewhat far away from the original target. To add insult to injury it turns out that Philae is currently situated in the shadow of a hill, eliminating the probe’s ability to use its solar panels to recharge its batteries.
Many ESA scientists fear that the mission will have to be called off because of the battery malfunction. The agency will be discussing possible solutions to the problem over the weekend.
