Philae carries 9 instruments but some of them are composed by more than one instrument. Those tools are used by Philae to analyse gazes and dusts, sloar winds, plasma and other waves. They are powered by solar panels, but the use of Philae instruments has been limited by the lander's primary battery because Philae landed in an area where the solar panels couldn't provide enough power.
Those instruments are on Philae because it was cheaper to bring the laboratory than taking back the dusts and gazes on the Earth.
The Philae's instruments are quoted above:
- APXS (Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer) is an instrument used to determine the chemical composition of the landing site. He will detect alpha particles and X-rays.
- CIVA (Comet Infrared and Visible Analyser) is a set of cameras split into two groups. One is composed of seven identical cameras that produced a panoramic image from Philae's resting site, this group is called CIVA-P. The second group is CIVA-M, he is composed of two miniaturised microscopes. One operates in visible light and the other in infrared.
- COSAC (Cometary Sampling and Composition) is a system used to detect complex organic molecules. The data collected by COSAC will help determine if some of the organic material on Earth was brought by comets.
- Ptolemy is specialised for the analysis of comprising carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. It can also analyse water, carbon monoxyde and noble gases.
- MUPUS (Multi Purpose Sensors for surface and subsurface science) is composed of temperature sensors attached to a 35 cm long penetrator that was designed to be deployed away from the landing module. When the penetrator is in the ground it provides informations of the properties of the comet's surface like the resistance of the surface and the temperature change with depth.
- ROLIS (Rosetta Lander Imaging System) is an imaging system composed of a miniaturised camera. It was used to take pictures during the descent of Philae, obtaining increasingly high resolution pictures of the landing site.
- ROMAP (Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma monitor) is used to determine the plasma environment and residual magnetic field on the comet.
- SD2 (Sample Drilling and Distribution) is a system used to provide some of the other instruments with material for analysis thanks to ad drill capable of collecting samples. SD2 provide material to CIVA, COSAC and Ptolemy.
- SESAME (Surface Electric Sounding and Acoustic Monitoring Expreriment) is a combination of three instruments used to work together to help understand how comets formed. This instruments are:
- CASSE (Cometary Acoustic Surface Sounding Experiment), used to investigate the surface and subsurface of the comet. It is a set of sensors into the feet of the lander which have two functions: listen for noise produced within the nucleus of the comet (expansion and contraction from heating and cooling, impacts or seismic events) and generate sound and use the reflections of that sound to find information about the material that it has passed through.
- PP (Permittivity Probe) is a set of five electrodes on differents parts of Philae. This is to determine the electrical conductivityof the surface of the comet.
- DIM (Dust Impact Monitor) is an instrument used to measure the impact of cometary particles. The measurements could be used to deduce the velocity at which the particles were ejected from the surface.
Nowadays, Philae is on standby.