Philae awakens, then sends :85s of messages back to Earth
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Sunday, June 14, 2015, 10:08 AM - In a second bit of exciting news from the ESA's Rosetta mission, tiny comet lander Philae has woken up from hibernation and is ready to get back to doing science!
Earlier this week, the Rosetta mission team reported on their blog that they may have located little "lost" comet lander, Philae. Now it seems they'll get their chance to verify that claim, and perhaps much earlier than they thought or even hoped.
On Saturday, June 13, at 10:28 p.m. CEST (4:28 p.m. EDT), controllers at the ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, received 85 seconds worth of messages from the lander, as they were relayed to Earth by the Rosetta spacecraft.
Fantastic news @philae2014 is awake! Details in @ESA_Rosetta blog https://t.co/kIoZ9KC0Cn #WakeUpPhilae pic.twitter.com/VHHFQjL4XD
— ESA (@esa) June 14, 2015
"Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec, at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), explained via the Rosetta blog. "The lander is ready for operations."
A total of over 300 data packets were received during that minute-and-15-second chat, which indicated that Philae has possibly been awake for a few days now.
"We have also received historical data," said Ulamec, "so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier."
...here's where @Philae2014, @ESA_Rosetta & comet #67P are right now (via @LiveCometData https://t.co/Ly2ZS8aEJr) pic.twitter.com/8Se79qx7pd
— Tim O'Brien (@Tim_O_Brien) June 14, 2015
For nearly 8 months, Philae has been silent on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After landing there on November 12, 2014, Philae performed about 60 hours of science before its battery ran down. The hope was that - as the comet swung closer to the Sun in its orbit - Philae would be able to collect enough solar power to change its battery and once again contact Rosetta and the team here on Earth. The spacecraft has been listening for signals from Philae since mid-March.
"It's been a long seven months, and to be quite honest we weren't sure it would happen," Mark McCaughrean, the Senior Science Advisor of the European Space Agency Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration, told the BBC. "There are a lot of very happy people around Europe at the moment."
Source: ESA Rosetta blog | BBC
