Comebacks do n’t come much bigger than this one : The European Space Agency ( ESA ) ’s Philae comet lander has woken up , albeit for just eighty - five seconds . The tidings has been announcedvia Twitter , and the ESA is affirmative this will be just the first revival of many .
In possibly the biggest skill story of the last year , the ESA put Rosettainto reach around comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko , travel along by the first everlanding of a space vehicle on a comet ’s surface .
Philaecollected staggeringly worthful dataover the next 60 hour , which will be studied for eld to number . Unfortunately however , its battery run out . Philae was design to replenish itself with solar great power , but it landed in what was suspected to be the shadow of a crater brim .
The ESA utter hope circumstances would change ; Churyumov - Gerasimenko is still heading in towards the sun , with close approach on August 13 .
Orbital variety had potential to provide several benefits . Comets have season too , and if Churyumov - Gerasimenko ’s tilt turned Philae ’s location towards the sun it would get more hours of light in a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . Moreover , solar intensity is increase as the comet near the sun . Finally , since cometssublimeaway as they reach the inside solar organisation , the inconvenient ridge doing the shadowing might shrink .
As of December , Philae ’s lead scientist Jean - Pierre Bibring wastelling a news program conferencethat “ Pessimistically [ a wake up ] will be after Easter , ” but that one early this class was a strong possibility . The ESA also predicate how , if Philae could just get enough sun to function , its localization would be a benefit , allow it to study not only the ground beneath its foot , but alsothe bite of the comet now hiding the sunshine .
However , as the day ticked away , the public became misanthropical . delegation scientist never gave up hope . Just three day ago analytic thinking of figure of speech taken by Rosetta last yearhinted at Philae ’s exact landing site , something unconfirmed until now . make the announcement , lander task ManagerDr Stephan Ulamec said , “ The conditions for Philae ’s wake - up are becoming more and more golden as the comet approaches the sun . ”
Now indeed , the greatest riposte since Lazarus has occurred . Just after midday Greenwhich Mean Time Philae’sTwitter account , after seven months of silence , tweeted “ Hello Earth ! Can you listen me ? # WakeUpPhilae ” . This was followed by a abbreviated interchange with @ESA_Rosetta , which reacted pretty much as any doting parent would on hearing from a longlost tike .
Image tweeted by Rosetta to celebrate Philae ’s rebirth . mention : ESA
Lander control had picked up 300 data packets from the spacecraft a few hours earlier , but verify their reliableness before releasing the information to the world .
" Philae is doing very well : It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts usable , " Ulamec reported . “ The lander is ready for surgical operation . ”
Ulamec also reported the content revealed that Philae had woken up antecedently , but signaling had not got through . “ We have also received diachronic data point , ” he said . Also in the subject matter is the fact that considerable information collected in the few days after Philae landed , but not yet received on Earth , remain in Philae ’s hatful memory , and will hopefully be sent during next wakeful periods .
