Scientists continue to attempt to contact the Philae probe on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko

As it is known, the landing of the Philae probe on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was not the most successful. The probe landed three times, took several pictures, transmitted to Earth a large amount of scientific information, which he managed to collect in a couple of days, and disconnected. Disabling, or rather, going to sleep mode was due to a lack of energy: the probe fell into the shadow, and its solar panels do not produce the required amount of electricity. The European Space Agency (ESA), which is responsible for the Rosetta mission, did its best to contact the probe, but to no avail.

There is no connection for several months now, but there is hope : the comet is gradually approaching the Sun, which means there is a chance that the rays of the Sun will still fall on the photocells of the probe. In addition, the surface temperature also rises, thus avoiding the negative effect of low temperatures on important components of the apparatus.


Philae team (German Aviation and Cosmonautics Center) at work
')
Already, the probe receives about twice as much energy as in November last year. True, the surface temperature may still be too low to operate the device — to exit the probe from hibernation, it is necessary that the temperature rise above minus 45 degrees Celsius. Philae has its own vital heating system, and the lion’s share of the energy produced is being heated. According to experts, with a lack of received energy, all available energy reserves are sent for heating, and the probe is “asleep”. As soon as the amount of energy received exceeds a certain limit, the device will wake up


Scientific instruments aboard probe

After “waking up,” the probe will begin every 30 minutes to try to contact Rosetta, including the receiving unit. If the amount of generated energy exceeds 19 watts, two-way communication will work.


The situation on March 13, a comment from a member of the team Philae

So far, the signal from the probe can not be obtained. But scientists are not discouraged. Now they will try to contact Philae until March 20th. Then attempts will continue in April.

In any case, every day the chances of awakening the probe and, accordingly, to receive a signal from it, are all higher. So while it remains only to wait and hope.