ESA will not search for lost Philae probe but wait for it to make contact

#ESA #philae #rosetta #abydos It was a historic moment when ESA’s Philae probe made its touchdown on the 4-Km wide "icy dirtball" 67P in November, but then ground lost contact with it and it gradually went silent when its battery ran flat. The orbiting Rosetta satellite took some high-resolution pictures of the surface of the comet but have not been able to identify the lander's location. The controllers have now decided to suspend search for the missing Philae and wait for it to call home as reported in bbc.com dated 30 January 2015.
They expect that communication links could be established in the May/June timeframe because, at that time, the lighting conditions at the probe's presumed resting place would improve and would provide enough power to run the onboard radio transmitter.
From available evidence, the ESA believes that after touchdown, it bounced twice, crossed a large depression named "Hatmehit", before finally coming to rest in a dark ditch that has now been dubbed "Abydos".
In the opinion of the scientists, this should happen once the comet's southern hemisphere comes out of winter in the coming weeks. At that time, the lighting conditions in the ditch will become better and that would allow the probe to first boot-up and then to communicate with Rosetta.
Once that happens, Rosetta will respond and wait for a reply. When it gathers enough light on its solar panels to maintain a stable telecoms link, it would start to warm and charge the battery system as well.
That way, Philae would be in a position to resume the science observations that were closed down just 60 hours after landing in November.