http://www.space.com/31927-farewell-philae-hunt-for-rosettas-lost-lander-ends.html

The European Space Agency is giving up on trying to contact the lost Philae comet lander, which had an unexpectedly rough touchdown after its release 16 months ago from the orbiting Rosetta mothership.

Rather than harpooning itself onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Philae bounced several times before coming to a rest against a cliff wall.

The probe ran through an automated three-day series of science experiments and relayed the results back to Earth before its batteries lost power.

dv said:

http://www.space.com/31927-farewell-philae-hunt-for-rosettas-lost-lander-ends.html

The European Space Agency is giving up on trying to contact the lost Philae comet lander, which had an unexpectedly rough touchdown after its release 16 months ago from the orbiting Rosetta mothership.

Rather than harpooning itself onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Philae bounced several times before coming to a rest against a cliff wall.

The probe ran through an automated three-day series of science experiments and relayed the results back to Earth before its batteries lost power.

Yes. I noticed this. Philae couldn’t be contacted when the comet was closest to the Sun because of the dust produced by the heating forcing Rosetta to back off. Attempts after moving away from the Sun failed, almost certainly because of a cold-damaged battery on Philae.

Do we even know if Philae is still on the surface or if it was lost in perihelion?

Divine Angel said:

Do we even know if Philae is still on the surface or if it was lost in perihelion?

Fair question but we’ll have the answer to that when the mothership goes in for a closer look in coming months