The Philae Landing - Lessons learned for future small bodies missions

Kurzfassung

Introduct The comet Lander Philae was part of the ESA Rosetta mis- sion [1]. It successfully landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12th, 2014 [2]. The landing followed a careful landing site selection process based on data ob- tained with the Rosetta orbiter instruments [3]. After several (unplanned) bounces, Philae per- formed 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. Philae has a payload of ten scientific instru- ments, all of which have been operated at least once [4]. Due to the fact that the final landing site was poorly illuminated, Philae went into hibernation after FSS, but signals from the Lander were received again in June and July 2015. Howev- er, attempts to re-establish reliable and stable communications links, unfortunately, failed. September 2nd, 2016, shortly before the Rosetta mission was ended with a planned impact of the main spacecraft, Philae could be clearly identi- fied on the comet surface with the Rosetta Or- biter Camera (OSIRIS). 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, Ire- land and Austria.