Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorian Gray
I also like the scrappy attitude of space scientists. They never give up. But I think this little lander did pretty well for itself. There must have been a real chance it would never land on the comet, for an infinite variety of reasons, and yet it did and transmitted something like 80–90 % of planned science data.
And perhaps it’s not done yet. My understanding is that it’s getting too little sunshine to heat up its battery in order to charge it (otherwise it could just trickle-charge with whatever light its solar panels are getting and do something useful every few weeks). But the comet has an orbital period around the sun of something like six years. And it will get much closer to the sun during that orbit. At its closest point the solar panels would receive about 6 × more sunlight than they’re getting now. Maybe that would provide enough power to warm the battery, charge it, and jab the drill at the surface to bounce the little guy to another, brighter landing spot.   |
Yah wouldn't that be something, to end up in a perfectly flat orienation and some battery life left with more light to boot. Never say never. Although I think like any battery tech these days, if you leave it discharged long enough, the cells die and cannot hold a charge later.