Scientists have begun activating a drill and hammer on board the robotic comet probe Philae in an attempt to move it into sunlight so that its solar panels can be charged.

Time is running out for the European Space Agency’s lander. Since its bumpy triple touchdown on Wednesday, the spacecraft has been resting on its side, lodged in the shadows of a cliff or large boulder.

Philae has been receiving just 1.5 hours of sunlight instead of the expected 6-7 hours. This is not enough to charge the secondary batteries. With an initial battery life of about 60 hours, Philae’s mission could be over in less than 20 hours.

The primary mission objective of analysing the composition of the comet was designed to be achievable within this timeframe but landing on its side has made things difficult. On Thursday, the lander sent back historic first images taken from the surface of a comet.

A communications window opened on Friday morning and contact was re-established with the lander. More science data has been collected and sent to Earth, as well as telemetry data detailing the lander’s health.

A second communications window will open tonight, but Paolo Ferri, Esa’s Head of mission operations, European Space Operations Centre, said this morning that there was no guarantee that Philae’s primary battery would still be charged by then.

Scientists have begun to activate the lander’s drill. Designed to extract sub-surface samples for analysis, it will be a risky manoeuvre. Philae is not anchored to the surface, and the rotation of the drill will cause an equal and opposite reaction on the lander. It could make Philae do a cartwheel.

Then, as the drill presses into the surface, it could push the lander away. Either of these consequences could move Philae into a better position for receiving sunlight, or they could topple the craft and end the mission.

Another instrument deployed by the lander overnight is MUPUS (Multi-Purpose Sensors for Surface and Subsurface Science) which hammers into the ground to measure the strength of the surface.

If Philae is still alive after the drilling, then more radical action could be taken to try to move it. “We have four systems that could move the lander,” said Jean-Pierre Bibring, lead lander scientist at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris Sud, France.

One possibility is to move the landing legs. According to Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager, DLR, these could be used to try to hop the lander into the sunlight. But one leg is sticking up into space rather than in contact with the surface, so there might not be enough spring in Philae’s step to achieve this.

Finally, in desperation, Bibring says they could even try re-firing the harpoons and thruster system that malfunctioned on landing day to jolt Philae into a new position.

Fred Jansen, Rosetta mission manager, European Space Agency, European Space Research and Technology Centre, struck a philosophical note, saying: “It has been absolutely fantastic. Of course you want the mission to last forever but there is a limited amount of sunlight.”

Meanwhile, Esa is still trying to establish Philae’s exact final landing spot. This is being done with the radar system on Rosetta and the OSIRIS camera.

The radar system, called CONSERT, can be used like a GPS satellite on Earth but because Rosetta is just one satellite, it takes longer to extract a precise location. On Earth, satnav systems usually coordinate three or more GPS signals.

Regardless of what happens to Philae, the main Rosetta mission, which analyses the comet from orbit continues for the next 20 months.