Tag: Philae

  • Engineers seek to stabilize radio link with comet lander

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    Rosetta’s navigation camera captured this view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko awakened by the sun June 5. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam Emboldened by renewed contact with Europe’s comet lander, engineers are repositioning the mission’s Rosetta mothership this week to establish a reliable a communications link with the dishwasher-sized Philae landing craft, a prerequisite for resuming a science campaign abbreviated…

  • Comet lander wakes up!

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of the Philae lander. Credit: DLR The European Space Agency’s Philae comet lander, out of power and presumably lost after bouncing into heavily shadowed terrain last November, phoned home Saturday after finally getting enough sunlight on its solar panels to transmit data to the Rosetta orbiter…

  • Philae awakes from comet slumber ready to return to work

    Philae awakes from comet slumber ready to return to work

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    European scientists have confirmed their brave little lander Philae has managed to regain communications with its Rosetta mothership. The lander had been in hibernation after its sporty landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko but awoke some time ago. However, Sunday’s announcement marked the first successful re-establishment of communication between the spacecraft. Philae’s Back! *LIVE Landing Coverage here* *LIVE +1…

  • Rosetta keeps its distance from awakening comet

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    Rosetta’s navigation camera took images for this mosaic of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on April 8. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM Mission controllers are rethinking a series of close-up comet flybys planned for Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft after a haze of dust around the comet’s central nucleus led to navigation errors during a close encounter in late March. Rosetta’s computer put…

  • Rosetta begins listening for signs of life from comet lander

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    Artist’s concept of the Philae comet lander. Credit: DLR Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is trying to contact the Philae landing probe for the first time since the robot fell silent after a bouncy landing on a comet in November. Although there are slim odds of hearing from Philae in the first communications window this month, scientists…

  • Scientific riches await Philae comet lander, if it wakes up

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    This four-image mosaic comprises images taken from a distance of 20.1 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the center of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Dec. 10. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM Optimistic Europe’s hibernating Philae comet lander can be revived, mission controllers plan to try and contact the spacecraft as soon as January as the search narrows for the probe’s final…

  • Philae’s “little cousin” heading for asteroid touchdown

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    A technician installs the MASCOT lander into the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft before launching to an asteroid. Credit: DLR Weeks after accomplishing the first touchdown on a comet, the team of European scientists that developed the Philae landing craft is awaiting launch of a related robot riding piggyback with Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to achieve the…

  • Philae finds comet harbors organics

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    A view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from Rosetta when it flew 10 kilometers away. Credit: ESA/NAVCAM Europe’s Philae lander found a surface as hard as ice and organic molecules after it bounced to a stop on a comet last week. Scientists looking over the spoils from the plucky little Philae probe released some of the first…

  • Rosetta camera sees Philae bouncing across comet

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    ESA PHOTO RELEASE These incredible images show the breathtaking journey of Rosetta’s Philae lander as it approached and then rebounded from its first touchdown on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014. The mosaic comprises a series of images captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera over a 30 minute period spanning the first touchdown. The time of…

  • Rosetta imagery shows Philae at first landing site

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    Images recorded by Rosetta’s navigation camera appear to show the lander, its shadow and the dust cloud kicked up by its first touchdown. Image: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM; pre-processed by Mikel Canania The first image in the sequence was taken on at 15:30 GMT on 12 November, just before the lander’s first touchdown; the second image was taken at 15:35…