+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted June 14, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted June 14, 2015 Philae comet lander wakes up The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth. Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November. It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat. The comet has since moved nearer to the sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos. An account linked to the probe tweeted the message, "Hello Earth! Can you hear me?" On its blog, Esa said Philae had contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds in the first contact since going into hibernation in November. "Philae is doing very well. It has an operating temperature of -35C and has 24 watts available," said Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec. Scientists say they now waiting for the next contact. ESA scientist Mark McCaughrean told the BBC: "It's been a long seven months, and to be quite honest we weren't sure it would happen - there are a lot of very happy people around Europe at the moment." Philae was carrying large amounts of data that scientists hoped to download once they made contact again, he said. "I think we're optimistic now that it's awake that we'll have several months of scientific data to pore over," he added. This is one of the most astonishing moments in space exploration and the grins on the faces of the scientists and engineers are totally justified, says BBC science editor David Shukman. For the first time, we will have a hitchhiker riding on a comet and describing what happens to a comet as it heats up on its journey through space, he adds. Source and full article: BBC News Dot Matrix and stevember 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draggendrop Veteran Posted June 14, 2015 Veteran Share Posted June 14, 2015 Excellent....It seemed a bit ifffy if it would charge and establish contact...... This was the video "Ambition" done for the landing...pretty good....... Jim K 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draggendrop Veteran Posted June 14, 2015 Veteran Share Posted June 14, 2015 Extra info... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted June 14, 2015 Author Subscriber² Share Posted June 14, 2015 Javascript is not enabled or refresh the page to view. Click here to view the Tweet Draconian Guppy and Jim K 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted June 14, 2015 Global Moderator Share Posted June 14, 2015 Excellent....It seemed a bit ifffy if it would charge and establish contact...... This was the video "Ambition" done for the landing...pretty good....... Thanks for that ... hadn't seen it before. Excellent video. Cool stuff ... glad this little guy woke up. Amazing what that can do with just 15 watts...hopefully sunlight will be in its future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arachno 1D Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 Philae contacted its hominid masters over the weekend, a much hoped-for event after the craft fell into a shady spot on the comet and depleted its batteries. The ESA now says that weekend contact saw 300 packets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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