Philae (spacecraft)

Philae
Illustration of Philae
Mission typeComet lander
OperatorEuropean Space Agency / DLR
COSPAR ID2004-006C Edit this at Wikidata
Websitewww.esa.int/rosetta
Mission durationPlanned: 1–6 weeks
Active: 12–14 November 2014
Hibernation: 15 November 2014 – 13 June 2015
Spacecraft properties
ManufacturerCNES
DLR
ASI
Launch mass100 kg (220 lb)[1]
Payload mass21 kg (46 lb)[1]
Dimensions1 × 1 × 0.8 m (3.3 × 3.3 × 2.6 ft)[1]
Power32 watts at 3 AU[2]
Start of mission
Launch date2 March 2004, 07:17 (2004-03-02UTC07:17) UTC
RocketAriane 5G+ V-158
Launch siteKourou ELA-3
ContractorArianespace
End of mission
Last contact9 July 2015, 18:07 (2015-07-09UTC18:08) UTC
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko lander
Landing date12 November 2014, 17:32 UTC[3]
Landing siteAbydos[4]

Philae (/ˈfl/[6] or /ˈfl/[7]) was a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft[8][9] until it separated to land on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, ten years and eight months after departing Earth.[10][11][12] On 12 November 2014, Philae touched down on the comet, but it bounced when its anchoring harpoons failed to deploy and a thruster designed to hold the probe to the surface did not fire.[13] After bouncing off the surface twice, Philae achieved the first-ever "soft" (nondestructive) landing on a comet nucleus,[14][15][16] although the lander's final, uncontrolled touchdown left it in a non-optimal location and orientation.[17]

Despite the landing problems, the probe's instruments obtained the first images from a comet's surface.[18] Several of the instruments on Philae made the first in-situ analysis of a comet nucleus, sending back data regarding the composition of the surface and outgassing from the subsurface.[19] In October 2020, scientific journal Nature published an article revealing what Philae had discovered while it was operational on the surface of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.[20]

On 15 November 2014 Philae entered safe mode, or hibernation, after its batteries ran down due to reduced sunlight and an off-nominal spacecraft orientation at the crash site. Mission controllers hoped that additional sunlight on the solar panels might be sufficient to reboot the lander.[21] Philae communicated sporadically with Rosetta from 13 June to 9 July 2015,[22][23][24] but contact was then lost. The lander's location was known to within a few tens of metres but it could not be seen. Its location was finally identified in photographs taken by Rosetta on 2 September 2016 as the orbiter was sent on orbits closer to the comet. The now-silent Philae was lying on its side in a deep crack in the shadow of a cliff. Knowledge of its location would help in interpretation of the images it had sent.[4][25] On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by crashing in the comet's Ma'at region.[26]

The lander is named after the Philae obelisk, which bears a bilingual inscription and was used along with the Rosetta Stone to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. Philae was monitored and operated from DLR's Lander Control Center in Cologne, Germany, supported by the CNES' SONC in Toulouse, France.[27]

  1. ^ a b c "Philae". National Space Science Data Center. 2004-006C. Archived from the original on 5 December 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  2. ^ "Philae lander fact sheets" (PDF). German Aerospace Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  3. ^ "Three Touchdowns For Rosetta's Lander" (Press release). European Space Agency. 14 November 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Philae found!" (Press release). European Space Agency. 5 September 2016. Archived from the original on 16 January 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  5. ^ "Lander Instruments". European Space Agency. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  6. ^ "philae". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  7. ^ Gilbert, Dave (12 November 2014). "Space probe scores a 310-million-mile bull's-eye with comet landing". CNN. Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  8. ^ Chang, Kenneth (5 August 2014). "Rosetta Spacecraft Set for Unprecedented Close Study of a Comet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  9. ^ "Opinion: In Pursuit of an Oddly Shaped Comet". The New York Times. 23 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  10. ^ Ulamec, S.; Espinasse, S.; Feuerbacher, B.; Hilchenbach, M.; Moura, D.; et al. (April 2006). "Rosetta Lander—Philae: Implications of an alternative mission". Acta Astronautica. 58 (8): 435–441. Bibcode:2006AcAau..58..435U. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2005.12.009.
  11. ^ Biele, Jens (June 2002). "The Experiments Onboard the ROSETTA Lander". Earth, Moon, and Planets. 90 (1–4): 445–458. Bibcode:2002EM&P...90..445B. doi:10.1023/A:1021523227314. S2CID 189900125.
  12. ^ Agle, D. C.; Cook, Jia-Rui; Brown, Dwayne; Bauer, Markus (17 January 2014). "Rosetta: To Chase a Comet" (Press release). NASA. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference newsciprob20141113 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Agle, D. C.; Webster, Guy; Brown, Dwayne; Bauer, Markus (12 November 2014). "Rosetta's 'Philae' Makes Historic First Landing on a Comet" (Press release). NASA. Archived from the original on 16 December 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  15. ^ Chang, Kenneth (12 November 2014). "European Space Agency's Spacecraft Lands on Comet's Surface". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  16. ^ Withnall, Adam (13 November 2014). "Philae lander 'bounced twice' on comet but is now stable, Rosetta mission scientists confirm". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  17. ^ Amos, Jonathan (13 November 2014). "Rosetta: Battery will limit life of Philae comet lander". BBC News. Archived from the original on 11 February 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  18. ^ "Europe's comet chaser". European Space Agency. 16 January 2014. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  19. ^ "Pioneering Philae completes main mission before hibernation" (Press release). European Space Agency. 15 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  20. ^ O'Rourke, Laurence; Heinisch, Philip; Sierks, Holger (28 October 2020). "The Philae lander reveals low-strength primitive ice inside cometary boulders" (PDF). Nature. 586 (7831): 697–701. Bibcode:2020Natur.586..697O. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2834-3. PMID 33116289. S2CID 226044338. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  21. ^ Brumfield, Ben; Carter, Chelsea J. (18 November 2014). "On a comet 10 years away, Philae conks out, maybe for good". CNN. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
  22. ^ Biever, Celeste; Gibney, Elizabeth (14 June 2015). "Philae comet lander wakes up and phones home" (PDF). Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17756. S2CID 182262028. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 February 2024.
  23. ^ "Comet lander Philae awakes from hibernation". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. 14 June 2015. Archived from the original on 22 February 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  24. ^ Baldwin, Emily (20 July 2015). "Rosetta and Philae status update". European Space Agency. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  25. ^ Victor, Daniel (5 September 2016). "No Longer Missing: Rosetta's Philae Spacecraft Located on Comet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  26. ^ Gannon, Megan (30 September 2016). "Goodbye, Rosetta! Spacecraft Crash-Lands on Comet in Epic Mission Finale". Space.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  27. ^ "Rosetta Lander Control Center". German Aerospace Center. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2015.

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