Philae wakes up!

[Doc Socks Junior]

The ESA comet lander, Philae, is up and ready for mission operations again. This after an imperfect landing left the lander in shadow -- unable to charge. At that time, it was predicted it would "wake up" eventually.

And it did! Go team!

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/14/rosettas-lander-philae-wakes-up-from-hibernation/

[Waspie_Dwarf]

The pessimist in my thought this would never happen. Sometimes it's really good to be proven wrong.

[Cesadelo]

Supposedly it will happen again, I guess.

[Calibeliever]

Great News! I thought it was a goner for sure.

[ShadowSot]

That's great news. Always amazed at the hardiness of our proves and landers.

[McNessy]

I wonder how much science 24 watts will get us before it needs a recharge

[jarjarbinks]

He was probably planning his revenge during that time

[Infernal Gnu]

What is the lowest temperature that these hi-tech space probes can function at--- anywhere that is at least a degree or two above absolute zero?

[Doc Socks Junior]

The most important functionality would be the instrumentation. And that can survive pretty extreme things if well designed

http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/31445-instruments/.

[b0wn]

-35 C is how cold?

[Ozfactor]

Great to hear , so much effort would have gone into this project , it is wonderful to hear that all that effort will now produce results !!

[Waspie_Dwarf]

all that effort will now produce results !!

It already had. Even if it hadn't woken up Philae would have added greatly to our understanding of comets.

[acute]

Spare a thought for the chimp they sent up on a one-way ticket to press the Reset button.

[Silver Surfer]

He was probably planning his revenge during that time

/Philae aims comet at planet earth.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Silver Surfer

[jarjarbinks]

-35 C is how cold?

not that cold. i mean, it happen a couple of time during the winter in Canada, sometime even worse.

[Silent Trinity]

Great news it has got some life back in those batteries! Nice to hear from you again Philae!

[Calibeliever]

-35 C is how cold?

Around -30 F.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Comet robot Philae phones home again

Europe's comet lander has again been in touch with Earth.

The Philae probe made three short contacts of about 10 seconds each at roughly 2130 GMT on Sunday.

Controllers at the European Space Agency said the contacts were briefer than they had hoped, but proved the little robot was in encouragingly good health after its seven-month slumber.

Read more...

[Merc14]

Apparently there are 8,000 data packets on board Philae, ready to be transmitted, which will cover its first few days on 67P. http://earthsky.org/space/philae-lander-is-alive?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=f8079991ba-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-f8079991ba-394012957

[Grandpa Greenman]

Just call little Philae the little lander that could. Great news.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Philae wake-up triggers intense planning

15 June 2015 The receipt of signals from Rosetta’s Philae lander on 13 June after 211 days of hibernation marked the start of intense activity. In coordination with its mission partners, ESA teams are working to juggle Rosetta’s flight plan to help with renewed lander science investigations.

Philae has woken up after seven months in hibernation on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Hidden by shadows, Philae shut down on 15 November 2014 at 00:36 GMT after completing its main science operations sequence on the comet when the primary battery expired as expected after about 60 hours.

Read more...

[BeastieRunner]

"This simple feeling, is beyond Philae's comprehension."

Let's hope it doesn't start attacking and assimilating everything in site.

Jokes aside, this is really cool.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Controllers wait on Philae link

No new signals have been picked up from the Philae comet lander since a brief radio contact on Sunday.

European Space Agency (Esa) controllers listened again on Tuesday night but heard nothing.

This was not surprising, they said, given the less than ideal conditions for a radio connection.

Read more...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Lander Control Center in contact with Philae once again

The team at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) received data from the Philae lander for the third time on 19 June 2015. Between 15:20 and 15:39 CEST, Philae sent 185 data packets. "Among other things, we have received updated status information," says Michael Maibaum, a systems engineer at the DLR Lander Control Center (LCC) in Cologne and Deputy Operations Manager. "At present, the lander is operating at a temperature of zero degrees Celsius, which means that the battery is now warm enough to store energy. This means that Philae will also be able to work during the comet's night, regardless of solar illumination."

Read more...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Contact with Philae still irregular and unstable

Despite a new trajectory for Rosetta and a reduction of the distance between the orbiter and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from 200 to 180 kilometres, contact with the Philae lander remains irregular and short. After the initial contact on 13 June 2015, Philae has reported to the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Lander Control Center (LCC) in Cologne a total of six times. However, for the last three possibilities calculated for establishing a connection with Philae, no data could be received. "Right now, we are playing with the geometry between the Rosetta orbiter and the Philae lander," says DLR's Philae Project Manager, Stephan Ulamec. "The most recent contact – on 24 June 2015 – lasted 20 minutes; then, the line went dead again." Now, the DLR and ESA mission teams are analysing which measures will make better contact with Philae possible.

Read more...