The comet lander Philae has re-established contact with the Earth following a period when it was "out of sight" of the main Rosetta orbiter which relays the signals. Even better news:
The dwindling energy reserves prompted the mission team to deploy the drill on Friday.
Although the activity was among Philae's key objectives, it was also regarded as being highly risky, because the torque on the tool could destabilise the delicately placed lander. But Esa felt that the closing power window made that risk worthwhile.
The first good news to emerge from the latest radio contact is that Philae appears to have suffered no major disruption from the drilling. And the instrument onboard the probe that was due to receive the first sample, Cosac, is feeding science data to Earth.
If the drill has managed to obtain a sample given the probable angle the lander is sitting at, this data could demonstrate that the isotopes in the water have a similar profile to the water on Earth. That would confirm (or deny) the theory that comets brought water to the Earth. The presence of complex organic molecules would also support the
panspermia theory and show we are all indeed stardust.
4:17 PM PT: Posted on the ESA blog:
“We’ve got data – all the house-keeping data and data from COSAC – although we’ve no idea what’s in there yet. The drill (SD2) moved up and down, but again, we don’t yet know what we have.”
“We did the lift and turn; the landing gear lifted by about 4 cm, and we turned about 35 degrees.
“The carousel of Ptolemy was also turned and we are running Ptolemy for a concentrated 'sniff'.
On board Philae, system voltage has fallen very close to 21.5V; below that, the battery won't last much longer. At this time, there is insufficient sunlight to provide power
4:46 PM PT: Last message from Philae?
.@ESA_Rosetta I'm feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap… #CometLanding
Last message to Philae?
ESA Rosetta Mission @ESA_Rosetta · 3m 3 minutes ago
.@Philae2014 You've done a great job Philae, something no spacecraft has ever done before. #CometLanding
5:10 PM PT: The lander has been put into "sleep" mode. No confirmation that the last piece of data was "42"
5:29 PM PT: Latest update from ESA (in part)
With its batteries depleted and not enough sunlight available to recharge, Philae has fallen into 'idle mode' -- a possibly long silence. In this mode, all instruments and most systems on board are shut down.
"Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the First Science Sequence," says DLR's Stephan Ulamec, Lander manager, who was in the main control room at ESOC tonight.
...
From now on, no contact would be possible unless sufficient sunlight falls on the solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up. The possibility that this may happen was boosted this evening when mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander's main body, to which the solar panels are fixed. This may have exposed more panel area to sunlight.
http://blogs.esa.int/...
The shutdown occurred shortly before contact would have been lost anyway. The next possible slot is 10.00 UTC and Rosetta will still listen for a signal which "Zombie Philae" will transmit if enough power is built up in the batteries.