{"id":39315,"date":"2015-06-14T18:47:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T10:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/philae-awakes-from-comet-slumber-ready-to-return-to-work\/"},"modified":"2015-06-14T18:47:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T10:47:25","slug":"philae-awakes-from-comet-slumber-ready-to-return-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/philae-awakes-from-comet-slumber-ready-to-return-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Philae awakes from comet slumber ready to return to work"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s announcement marked the first successful re-establishment of communication between the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Philae\u2019s Back! *LIVE Landing Coverage here* *LIVE +1 Coverage here*<\/p>\n

The Rosetta mission was launched over 10 years ago from Europe\u2019s Spaceport in Kourou on an Ariane 5G rocket.<\/p>\n

The Rosetta spacecraft, with her Philae lander, conducted an odyssey that would take them on an orbit of Jupiter, passing by Earth three times, Mars once and also flying past two asteroids. Their destiny was to arrive at a comet 800 million kilometres (500 million miles) from the Sun.<\/p>\n

\"2015-06-14-163422\"Ahead of the rendezvous, Philae was woken from its hibernation and prepared for its big day as Rosetta began to orbit 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.<\/p>\n

Philae\u2019s stunning departure \u2013 with huge interest from around the world \u2013 went to plan.<\/p>\n

However, problems involving the cold gas thruster system that was to aid the lander\u2019s touchdown \u2013 along with the issue of the harpoons failing to fire to hold Philae in place \u2013 meant the spacecraft was unable to remain in the designated landing area.<\/p>\n

Notably, Philae\u2019s initial touchdown was bang on target, touching down in the pre-selected landing site named Agilkia.<\/p>\n

\"2014-11-15However, the lander bounced back up as far as a kilometer, before returning to a new location on the comet, bouncing one more time, prior to then coming to rest on the surface.<\/p>\n

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Philae\u2019s eventual resting point saw it in a rather precarious position, with one leg in the air.<\/p>\n

This raised concerns the lander would not be able to properly deploy its drill \u2013 a key element of the mission, with the goal of gathering samples from the comet, in turn potentially providing answers to questions as important as the origin of life on Earth.<\/p>\n

It was then revealed that Philae\u2019s location was not ideal for its solar arrays, required to gain power from the Sun.<\/p>\n

\"2015-06-14-161844\"The lander was shadowed by a cliff, a major issue \u2013 not helped by the fact the lander was not in its correct orientation, hindering the power collection of the arrays that are located around its body.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, the little spacecraft and its team battled on via the creation of a plan to push through as many scientific goals as possible before Philae\u2019s battery power ran out.<\/p>\n

After a large amount of ingenuity from the Rosetta and Philae teams, a final science drive was conducted with the remaining battery power, prior to communications being re-established for the key transmission of data from Philae\u2019s work on the comet.<\/p>\n

\"2014-11-15The results showed all of the science instruments were deployed, including the instruments that required mechanical movement, such as APXS, MUPUS, and the drill, SD2, that delivered samples to the PTOLEMY and COSAC instruments inside the lander.<\/p>\n

Soon it was shown Philae was fighting against fading battery power, as expected. However, the intrepid lander showed true fighting spirit and kept firing data at Rosetta, ahead of it being transmitted back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Philae\u2019s batteries were depleted, with not enough sunlight available to recharge. Philae fell into \u2018idle mode\u2019 \u2013 with all of its instruments and most systems on board shut down.<\/p>\n

Although the mission was already classed as an incredible success, there was a small amount of hope the lander could get lucky if sufficient sunlight falls on the solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up.<\/p>\n

\"2015-06-14-161746\"The small possibility of Philae returning to life would come as the heavenly body moved farther into the inner reaches of our Solar System, potentially allowing sunlight to recharge the lander\u2019s arrays.<\/p>\n

With Rosetta still in orbit, searches continued to find the lander on the surface. The likely area was known, but no confirmed visual sightings had been made during the passes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been able to narrow down Philae\u2019s location to an area of approximately 16 by 160 metres,\u201d noted Project Leader Stephan Ulamec from the German Aerospace Center just last week.<\/p>\n

Then, on Sunday, a twitter account linked with the a twitter account linked with the lander gave a clue to the upcoming news, tweeting \u201cHello Earth\u201d Can you hear me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2015-06-14-163157\"The official announcement soon followed, confirming signals had been received at ESA\u2019s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt late on Saturday.<\/p>\n

ESA noted that more than 300 data packets were analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), as the lander finally managed to make contact and confirmed it was back in business.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35C and has 24 Watts available,\u201d added Dr. Ulamec. \u201cThe lander is ready for operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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