Europe's Philae lander is doing well and has succeeded in planting a thermometer in the comet where it touched down this week, the European Space Agency said Friday.
Scientists have received a steady stream of data from the lander, which on Wednesday became the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet and has since sent its first images from the surface of the body, known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
However, their job is complicated by the fact that Philae landed next to a cliff that is blocking sunlight from its solar panels.
Planting a thermometer in the surface was Philae's first so-called "mechanical operation" but ESA says it will hold off on any more for now.
MUPUS PEN Deployment operation confirmed, waiting for confirmation of insertion #ThePinprick— MUPUS on Philae (@Philae_MUPUS) November 14, 2014
First data coming in— MUPUS on Philae (@Philae_MUPUS) November 14, 2014
On Friday, Philae reportedly began drilling into the comet to extract some of the material buried beneath the surface of the comet, which is streaking through space at 41,000 mph (66,000 kph) some 311 million miles (500 million kilometers) from Earth.
Back to work! I’m now drilling into the surface of #67P… I’ll give you updates as soon as I can! #CometLanding— Philae Lander (@Philae2014) November 14, 2014
The lander's primary battery only has power for another day or so and mission controllers are contemplating how they might realign it so that the solar panels can charge the craft. According to Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager, only a short window of sunlight is available to the lander each day. Despite that, Ulamec was optimistic about the lander's potential.
"We have tremendous science we have wonderful results from the instruments," said Ulamec.
Two harpoons that should have anchored the washing machine-sized Philae to the surface weren't deployed during Wednesday's landing.
That caused the lander to bounce off the comet and drift through the void for two hours before touching down again. After a second, smaller bounce, scientists believe it came to rest in a shallow crater on the comet's 2½ mile (4-kilometer) wide body, or nucleus.
Communication with the lander is slow, with signals taking more than 28 minutes to travel between Earth and Philae's mother ship, the Rosetta orbiter flying above the comet.
Additional reporting by Megan Specia