Comet lander Philae's 'risky drilling' as power fades

Comet scientists said today it was time to “take risks” with the Philae lander amid fears that its solar-powered batteries could die within hours.

The landing craft was sitting in the shadow of a cliff, and may not get enough sunlight to work beyond tomorrow. The European Space Agency was “preparing to take risks” by drilling into the comet so that it could pull up samples to be analysed in the robot’s onboard laboratories.

But it would be a high risk manoeuvre because it could destabilise the delicately-placed probe and send it spinning into space.

The team was also set to try to help the three-legged lander “hop” out of its position so that the sun’s rays can reach its solar panels and recharge the batteries.

Dr Chris Lintott, an astronomer at Oxford University who has been involved in the project, today said it was “close to end of mission”.

However, he said the project had still been a success as it was only the “extended mission” that had been lost — the original plan had only been for the lander to last for about 60 hours on battery power.

He tweeted this morning: “If they do get contact tonight they might try rotating (with feet on ground) to face the sun... other crazy ideas probably ruled out by power”.

The attempt to drill into the rock to collect samples began this morning.

The Twitter “feed” on the Rosetta SD2 drill-bit, which was yesterday said to be broken, stated: “Nominal procedure will be executed. No room for changes. We rearm the drill bit and roto-translate down to position 560mm.”