The last attempt to contact the Philae module on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was unsuccessful

The head of the ESA Permanent Mission in the Russian Federation, Rene Pishel, reported that the last attempt to transfer the command to the Philae module was unsuccessful, TASS reports . The last time the device got in touch was July 9 last year. Since then, the system has not shown any signs of life.

Now the comet continues to move away from the Sun, respectively, its surface is illuminated worse and worse, the surface cools. And there is almost no chance of waking up the Philae module. Most likely, the module is located in a darkened place where sunlight does not penetrate and does not receive the energy it needs for operation.

“The specialists of the Rosetta Mission Control Center at the DLR German Aerospace Center are still trying to establish communication with the Philae landing module. The last such attempt to transfer the command to turn on the gyroscope on the module was carried out on January 10 and again to no avail, ”added Rene Pishel.
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The project participants are also confident that one receiver and one transmitter failed on board the module, and the other two antennas work intermittently (one of the possible reasons is that they are immersed in the comet's soil). Scientists had hoped that a series of commands could be passed to the probe blindly, to awaken some module systems that would help move the device to a more illuminated place.

Now Rosetta continues to receive signals from the surface of the comet, and if Philae does wake up, it will not go unnoticed. Comet Rosetta will be in orbit until September 2016, after which the station will be put on the surface of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.