Two days ago, the Philae lander successfully touched down on comet 67P, making it the first time that humans have been able to land an object on a speeding objects. But while it is a great scientific achievement, the mission might be short lived.

Philae has enough battery power on board to charge itself for 64 hours after detaching from the Rosetta orbiter, and after that it has to rely on solar power to keep it going for the next couple of months. But the problem is that Philae landed about 1km from where it was supposed to – and is now stuck in the shade.

To be able to successfully beam back images and sample analysis (and to perform general operations), it needs around seven hours of sunlight to recharge its batteries, but since it is not where it was land, it now only receives around three hours of solar energy.

“We are exactly below a cliff, so we are in a shadow permanently,” said lead scientist Jean-Pierre Bibring.

But that is not the only trouble that Philae is in…

The lander has been designed with harpoons in all three of its feet, and the original plan for it was to shoot these hooks into the comet surface as soon as it touched down. This did not happen, resulting in it bouncing three time and eventually landing where it did.

It turns out that one foot is actually up in the air and the equipment is on its side, so if the team decided to launch the harpoons now, it could topple him over or send the little guy back into orbit forever – as the comet’s gravity is 100 000 times weaker than on earth.

“First analysis of the touchdown data suggests that the lander bounced twice before settling on the surface of Comet 67P/C-G. The lander remains unanchored to the surface, but the instruments are running and are delivering images and data,” the European Space Agency said in a statement.

[Source, Image – ESA]