Philae, the boxy little robot that landed on a comet, is being laid to rest.
It’s time for me to say goodbye. Tomorrow, the unit on @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever...
It's been silent since July 2015, but its mothership, the European Space Agency (ESA) probe Rosetta, has kept its lines of communication open in case Philae woke up again. Now Rosetta is cutting it off.
My power is decreasing so far from the Sun I can no longer listen for @philae2014: https://t.co/MZ3JiOB6pO
ESA scientists think that Philae is "in a state of eternal hibernation", which seems to be a rather more technical way of saying "dead".
It's looked since January as though Philae had probably come to the end of its exciting life.
In 2014, the Rosetta space mission managed to catch up with a comet after a 4-billion-mile journey.
Rosetta also managed to land a little robot, called Philae, on the comet itself. Philae became something of a Twitter star as it did so.
It’s me… landing on a comet & feeling good! MT @ESA_Rosetta: I see you too! #CometLanding
Philae is a little thing about the size of a fridge. It separated from Rosetta, which was orbiting about 20 miles away from the comet, and slowly – over seven hours, sending jaunty tweets all the way – fell to the surface, where it was meant to latch on to the surface using harpoons and thrusters.
But it all went a bit wrong when Philae tried to land. Instead of settling smoothly, it bounced more than half a mile back out into space, and landed in the shadow of a cliff.
Now that I’m safely on the ground, here is what my new home #67P looks like from where I am. #CometLanding
The gravity on the comet is only 1/10,000th of Earth's, so even a very gentle bounce launched it a long way. And being in shadow meant that it couldn't recharge its batteries using its solar panels as effectively. It had 60 hours of battery life, and sent back some interesting scientific results, but then it went into hibernation.
As the comet flew closer to the sun – and brought its robot escorts with it – Philae managed to get a bit more sunshine on its face, and revived itself briefly.
Hello @ESA_Rosetta! I'm awake! How long have I been asleep? #Lifeonacomet
In June last year, it got enough energy to send back some of the data stored in its hard disk. But it lost contact again in July, with lots of vital information about the comet still stuck on board.
Then the comet began heading away from the sun again, so Philae got darker and colder. In January, scientists made one last attempt to revive it.
Still listening for @Philae2014. Control team will send command to spin up flywheel. https://t.co/B4EythD4oo (PC)
They sent a message ordering the lander to fire up its flywheel, in the hope that the vibrations would shake any dust off its solar panels and let it get more sun. It was a long shot – "an admittedly desperate move," as Philippe Gaudon, of the French National Space Agency, told AFP. "It is very unlikely the robot will become functional again."
But they never received any response.
@isapinza The commands for @Philae2014 were executed as planned, but no signal was received. (KR)
So Philae will be silent for eternity now.
@isapinza There are communication opportunities twice a day until 21 Jan, after which @ESA_Rosetta will fly to the southern hemisphere (KR)
Still, it had a hell of a run. In its shortish life, it travelled billions of miles, landed on a comet, and made exciting scientific discoveries.
And besides, at least it's not the saddest robot in the solar system.
If you're sad about it, you can do something! The ESA wants the public to send postcards to Philae, filled with memories of Earth.
I’m far from Earth&Sun!I’d love to take memories of YOU with me. Please send me a postcard from home! #GoodbyePhilae https://t.co/Mh7KdkmsKZ
Let's not kid ourselves though, Philae won't get to read them. It's dead and frozen in the eternal dark. But it might make you feel better, idk.
😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭