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It's Alive! It's Alive! Comet Lander Philae Phones Home After Months of Silence http://news.yahoo.com/alive-comet-lander-philae-phones-home-months-silence-160925305.html A European probe that made a bouncy landing on a comet last year, and then slipped into a silent hibernation, is alive again and phoning home. Comet lander Philae awakes from hibernation Associated Press After months of hibernation, the Philae lander has woken up The Verge European space probe, thought lost, awakes in comet's shadows Reuters Aiden Gillen, Littlefinger on 'Game of Thrones,' Stars in Comet Video SPACE.com The European Space Agency's Philae comet lander, which dropped onto Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from the Rosetta spacecraft last November, beamed an 85-second wake-up message to Earth via Rosetta yesterday (June 13), ESA officials announced today. It was the first signal from Philae in seven months since the probe fell silent on Nov. 15 after its historic comet landing. "Philae is doing very well," Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), said in a statement. "The lander is ready for operations." According to Ulamec, Philae is currently experience temperatures of minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 35 degrees Celsius) and has about 24 watts of power available. During its wake-up call to Earth, Philae beamed 300 data packets home and was most likely active before the first signal reached Earth on Saturday, ESA officials said. "We have also received historical data so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier," Ulamec said in the same statement. Philae is a solar-powered probe about the size of a washing machine that landed on Comet 67P on Nov. 12, 2014. It dropped to the surface from its mothership Rosetta, but bounced twice when its anchor-like harpoon system failed to secure it to the surface. The probe ultimately ended up in the shadow of a cliff face on the comet. After about 60 hours the probe's batteries ran out and it went into hibernation on Nov. 15. It's Alive! Comet Lander Philae Phones Home These images from the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft show the approach of the Philae … Over the last seven months, Rosetta and Philae mission scientists in Europe have hoped that once Comet 67P approached closer to the sun, Philae might receive enough sunlight to wake itself up from its forced slumber. Those hopes, it seems, have finally been realized. ESA officials said Philae has more details about Comet 67P to share with scientists on Earth. "Now the scientists are waiting for the next contact," ESA officials wrote in a statement. "There are still more than 8,000 data packets in Philae’s mass memory which will give the DLR team information on what happened to the lander in the past few days on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko." The Rosetta comet mission launched toward Comet 67P in 2004 and traveled 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) over 10 years to reach its destination. Rosetta arrived at the comet in August 2014 and is expected to continue studying 67P through December.

Το philae έπεσε σε παγίδα... http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30083969 It's a trap This rebound reached hundreds of metres above the comet and lasted almost two hours. When Philae came back down, it made another small leap, which took it into a high-walled trap. Telemetry and pictures from the robot itself indicate this location is covered in deep shadow for most of 67P's day. As a consequence, Philae receives insufficient solar power to re-boot and form a radio link to the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft. Esa cannot be sure the robot will ever come back to life, but even if it does not the agency says it is "hugely happy" with what was achieved in the 60 hours following landing. The probe managed to complete more than 80% of its planned primary science campaign on the surface. This data was pulled off the robot just before its sagging energy reserved dropped it into sleep mode. Little of the results have so far been released by the various instrument teams. The one major exception is MUPUS. This sensor package from the German space agency's Institute for Planetary Research deployed a thermometer on the end of a hammer. It retrieved a number of temperature profiles but broke as it tried to burrow its way into the comet's subsurface. Scientists say this shows the icy material underlying 67P's dust covering to be far harder than anyone anticipated - having the tensile strength of some rocks. It also helps explain why Philae bounced so high on that first touchdown. The 4km-wide comet has little gravity, so when key landing systems designed to hold the robot down failed at the crucial moment - the probe would have been relying on thick, soft, compressive layers to absorb its impact. However much dust it did encounter at that moment, it clearly was not enough to prevent Philae making its giant rebound.