Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission
COSAC
Cometary Sampling and Composition
MUPUS
Multi-purpose Sensors for Surface and Subsurface Science
PTOLEMY
Gas chromatograph and medium resolution mass spectrometer
ROLIS
Rosetta Lander Imaging System
ROMAP
Rosetta lander Magnetometer and Plasma monitor
SD2
Sampling, Drilling and Distribution
SESAME
Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment[5]
CASSE
Comet Acoustic Surface Sounding Experiment
DIM
Dust Impact Monitor
PP
Permittivity Probe
Philae (/ˈfaɪliː/[6] or /ˈfiːleɪ/[7]) was a roboticEuropean Space Agencylander that accompanied the Rosettaspacecraft[8][9] until it separated to land on comet67P/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]
^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.
^Cite error: The named reference newsciprob20141113 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).