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Comment by trose | Hacker News Reader

Yeah the probe is covered in panels. The main issue is that it did not land where they intended and it is mostly in shadow. I am not a rocket scientist but... it looks like it will be getting closer to the sun as time goes on here so maybe the light it can get later will be more intense and enough to power it?

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The main issue I read was that even though it gets some light (something like 1 hour of light per 12 hours) the battery can't recharge when it's cold. So Philae needs light to heat up the battery and only then it can start charging it so it needs a longer exposure to sunlight or it needs to be closer to the sun so it heats up faster.

I thought solar panels were more efficient when cold...

Most electronics are more efficient when "cold", but when we say that we mean "cold" by our earth standards, i.e. something like 15 degrees celsius. I think I read that Philae's temperature after landing was less than -160 degrees celsius. Getting anything to work at those temperatures is hard...

From the panorama they released, it's in quite a hairy spot.

Mattias Malmer corrected the perspective [0] and I threw it in my JS pano viewer. [1] It helps to visualize where it's sitting.

[0] http://mattias.malmer.nu/2014/11/philae-final-landing-place/ [1] http://robotrising.org/StratoSphere/index.html?src=images/ph...

wait, is it on it's side?

It's on a slope I believe.

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