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Rosetta's Philae lander battery running out due to 'bouncy off-course' landing post historic touchdown

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ANI London

Rosetta spacecraft's robot probe Philae which recently made a historic touchdown on a comet might face a battery issue.

The lander bounced twice, initially about 1km back out into space, before it settled in the shadow of a cliff, 1km from its intended target site and therefore, it may now be challenging to get enough sunlight to charge its battery systems, the BBC reported.

Paolo Ferri, the head of European Space Agency's (ESA) operations here in Darmstadt, Germany, said that they had estimations that go the battery life might work for 24 hours.

Philae has already taken several images different sides of the lander and has sent back the first images ever taken from the crumbling, fractured terrain of a comet.

 

Philae is receiving about 1.5 hours of illumination during every 12-hour rotation of the comet.

The mission was launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to learn about the origins of our Solar System.

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First Published: Nov 14 2014 | 10:03 AM IST

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