Philae - First Landing on a Comet

Kurzfassung

Philae a comet Lander which is part of the ESA Rosetta mission successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12th, 2014. The landing followed a careful landing site selection process, based on data obtained with the Rosetta orbiter instruments. After several (unplanned) bounces, Philae performed a First Scientific Sequence (FSS), based on the energy stored in it’s on board batteries. The touch-down dynamics, bouncing trajectory and attitude could be reconstructed a-posteriori. All ten instruments of the Philae payload have been operated at least once. Due to the fact that the final landing site was poorly illuminated, Philae went into hibernation on November 15th, but signals from the Lander were received again in June and July 2015. However, attempts to re-establish reliable and stable communications links, unfortunately, failed. Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae Lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI with additional contributions from Hungary, UK, Finland, Ireland and Austria.