European Space Agency found the lost Philae module

9/7/2016, Milan Šurkala

In 2014, European Space Agency reached the Comet 67P, but its space robot Philae was lost after three days only. ESA managed to get contact with the robot and finally find its location after two years. Now, the reason why the robot was lost, is known too.

European Space Agency has carried out Rosetta space mission but it was not without problems. The probe was able to reach the Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko orbit in 2014 and to release the Philae lander. The landing of the Philae module did not go well and it disappeared. After three days, the energy levels were too low and Rosetta lost the contact. The contact was restored in June and July 2015 when the comet was closer to the Sun and it was able to get some solar energy. Still, it was unknown where the Philae is and what happened.

Now, only one month before the mission was planned to finish, the lander was finally found. ESA found it on the photo where two of three legs of the module were clearly visible. The image was taken by the OSIRIS camera when it was about 2.7 km of the surface on September 2. Because the OSIRIS camera uses a narrow angle of view, it also provides better details that cannot be achieved with other cameras. The lander was located in a crack of the surface and, therefore, it was usually in a shadow without sunshine needed to provide an electrical energy.

The next step is to land Rosetta probe on the surface of the comet. During the landing, it should capture even closer images. The end of this mission is planned to September 30 and we can expect more images to be released soon.

Source: esa.int