Battery comet lander is empty – Telegraaf.nl

Darmstadt –

The European comet explorer does not. provisionally The battery of the Philae has become critically low in the night from Friday to Saturday. All instruments on board are therefore disabled. Reported that the mission control in Darmstadt, Germany

.

The depletion of the battery does not mean the definitive end of the study. The Scout is Friday rotated 35 degrees so that more solar cells in the light stand. The solar panels, which are made in the Netherlands, can charge the battery of the lander. It is not yet known whether the run has generated. If it helps anything, comes a new opportunity. In the coming months The comet will come closer to the sun. The lander then maybe get more sunlight, which could charge the battery.

Doubt

The lander arrived Wednesday to the 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After the euphoria of the first comet landing in history the doubt grew. The Scout proved to be too have fallen than intended. In a different place He bounced twice. The flight controllers do not know where the Philae is exactly, but probably he stands in the shadow of a rock wall.

The flight control has been late Friday night back in touch with the explorer. “Scientific data flows in from the surface of the comet,” reported the European Space Agency. These data will include on the first hole in the surface of the comet. Pre was fear that the lander would take off by the pressure of the bore. He is distinct on the surface, the anchor did not work. Drilling appears’ to have gone well. The drill “went all the way down and back up again,” wrote the ESA.

was

Sample

The drill a monster out of the soil so that other instruments can figure out where the bottom exists. Those results have not yet been processed.

The ESA has published Friday also two pictures of the comet landing. The photos were taken by the Rosetta probe, which is in orbit around the comet. The first picture was taken a few minutes before landing, the second a minute later. Is a dark spot on the second picture shows, possibly a dust cloud

.

class=”clear”