Philae wakes up

[astroron (Ron)]

The lander on Comet 67P has woken up and called home. Yay
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06...m-hibernation/
Cheers

[traveller (Bo)]

[Suzy]

Such exciting news. I'm beside myself with glee!
Lil washing machine sized Philae has been heavily on my mind the last couple of days- maybe he felt my vibes .

I've been watching this mission closely.
it'll be quite interesting to see what they do with Philae's location as it's wedged in a crevice. Bounce him out (unless the jets do it naturally) or leave him there as too risky with the jets. But either way- it's going to be toast soon come perihelion in August anyway right ? So maybe they'll take the risk in the name of science . Not forgetting that those unplanned bounces brought us heaps of great data.

Can't wait for the drilling to start- it's going to be their top priority.

P.S. I want a press conference. And I want one now!

[RobF (Rob)]

Wow, thanks Ron. Wasn't expecting we'd ever hear anything from it again. Exciting news. Hope they get some more good data from it!

[Ric]

Top stuff.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by Suzy

Such exciting news. I'm beside myself with glee!
Lil washing machine sized Philae has been heavily on my mind the last couple of days- maybe he felt my vibes .

I've been watching this mission closely.
it'll be quite interesting to see what they do with Philae's location as it's wedged in a crevice. Bounce him out (unless the jets do it naturally) or leave him there as too risky with the jets. But either way- it's going to be toast soon come perihelion in August anyway right ? So maybe they'll take the risk in the name of science . Not forgetting that those unplanned bounces brought us heaps of great data.

Can't wait for the drilling to start- it's going to be their top priority.

P.S. I want a press conference. And I want one now!

Seems they think it might be quite fortuitous being where it is as it will have a chance of surviving a lot longer into the swing past the sun. It would have cooked out in the open in the original spot.
A Grandstand view of it all from the covered stands ... Be absolutely amazing it it comes out the other side still going, incredible science opportunity.

Fingers crossed for little Philae

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Absolutely fantastic news! Here's a bit more info:
http://t.space.com/all/29661-philae-...=1434313635570

[Starless (Brian)]

This is excellent news.

I was really disapointed when the original landing
went belly up.

Looking forward to whatever info the tough little bit
of high tech sends back.

[leon]

Excellent news indeed, and to think it woke up on my 65 birthday, now thats pretty cool.

Leon

[AstralTraveller (David)]

The first thing I heard this morning, as I shot through the kitchen on my 'bed to toilet' dash, was my wife saying: "<garbled> has woken up!". Huh? I thought. We don't have guests staying.

Anyway, the lander news is very good and I'm sure there are a lot of happy 'eggheads' at mission control. Hopefully they get to do some of the science that was planned.

[Suzy]

Things aren't going so well at the moment .

From Dan Fischer, via facebook's Comet Watch group:

Sorry to disturb the party but ... after the brief communication Saturday night (European time) Philae has not talked to Rosetta again and has now missed the two subsequent communication windows Sunday at noon and Sunday evening. This can have geometrical reasons, and the orbit and strategy of Rosetta will be adjusted soon to improve 'viewing' conditions, but we aren't out of the woods yet. *If* stable comms can be established, http://news.sciencemag.org/.../scientists-celebrate-comet... describes in detail what would happen next, payload-wise.




Below is a great article by Bob King (cool animation pics of Philae as well) and a statement from Klim Churyumov.
There's also a nice nod to the PACA community which some of our members here including myself are part of .
http://www.universetoday.com/120825/...makes-contact/

“Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Landing probe Philae awake! Everybody, please accept my sincere congratulations! It happened on 13 June 2015 in the day of birthday of my mother – Antonina Mikhailovna (108 years have passed since the day of her birth). And I’m starting from 13 November 2014 to this day, every morning pronounced a short prayer: “Lord, please wake Philae and support Rosetta”. God and the Professional Navigators woke Philae! It is fantastic! All the best! – Klim Churyumov.


How poignant Philae awoke on Klim’s mother’s birthday!


Churyumov made his statement on the Pro-Am Collaborative Astronomy (PACA) site devoted to pro-amateur collaboration during comet observing campaigns. I encourage you to check out the group and participate by submitting your own observations of Comet 67P as it brightens this summer and early fall.

[pluto (Hugh)]

Thanks for the update Suzy.
While this certainly isn't good news I don't think it's really all that surprising.
I'm sure she'll pull through and I can't wait to find out more about the final landing site

[icytailmark (Mark)]

its amazing the batteries are still working after 7 months. Must be energisers LOL. Its really great news that PHilae is still working. I think Philae must of been getting a small amount of power over the past 7 months but just not enough power to transmit.

[pluto (Hugh)]

Originally Posted by icytailmark

its amazing the batteries are still working after 7 months. Must be energisers LOL. Its really great news that PHilae is still working. I think Philae must of been getting a small amount of power over the past 7 months but just not enough power to transmit.

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned the battery condition yet. As far as I know the batteries are not charged and Philae has only been awake while its solar panels are generating electricity.
The article that Suzy linked to mentions:
"Finally, if the power supply improves slightly, or if it can be used to charge Philae’s drained batteries..."

[Suzy]

Thanks Hugh, it's a pleasure .

This has just finished airing on The Sky at Night (on BBC 4) :
Rosetta Update - A Comet's Story.

The site won't let me access it as I'm outside the U.K. and I can't find it anywhere else online, including YouTube. So if anyone has any luck could you p-l-e-a-s-e post the link here? Thanks .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05ztytt

[Suzy]

Also, for those that missed this link in one of my previous posts, please read it. It is by far the most comprehensive article to-date.

Eric Hand writes absolutely brilliant articles on the Rosetta Mission.

http://news.sciencemag.org/europe/20...-month-slumber

[Suzy]

Some good news .

From Jonathan Amos on twitter:

The good news today is that @Philae2014 again made contact last night. Three short contacts of about 10 seconds each.

https://twitter.com/BBCAmos/status/610371256727244800


And here's the telemetry (though it's over my head!)
http://isee3.p3s.nl/philae/

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Suzy

Some good news .

From Jonathan Amos on twitter:

The good news today is that @Philae2014 again made contact last night. Three short contacts of about 10 seconds each.

https://twitter.com/BBCAmos/status/610371256727244800


And here's the telemetry (though it's over my head!)
http://isee3.p3s.nl/philae/

Thanks for keeping us up to date Suzy.
Cheers

[Suzy]

Thanks Ron. I think I've kind of taken over your thread in your absence .

I have two latest updates worth reading, courtesy of Dan Fischer.

Right now they have to do some re-pointing with Rosetta to talk with Philae- the trajectories of the Rosetta orbiter will need to be adapted to allow longer contact times with Philae.

Philae is receiving at least 3 hours of sunlight a day, which supplies it with energy. It was expected to only receive 1.3 hours of illumination.

Before the team can command the Philae, stable and long duration connections to the lander must be established. Only then, can the prepared procedures for the scientific work with its 10 instruments be uploaded and the next experiments begin.

The order in which the instruments will be activated will be determined once Philae's health has been fully analysed.

Once those boxes are ticked, science is expected to start at the end of June or early July.


http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefa.../gallery/16734

http://www.dw.de/rosetta-mission-con...ent/a-18518166

[sil (Steve)]

It's great poor little Philae hasn't been abandoned and isn't dead and will allow for some creative solutions that might be considered too risky on other programs. It's all useful data.