[Science] Rosetta meets its Comet

Kontaktversuch beendet: Kometenlander Philae antwortet (noch) nicht

Ein erster ausgiebiger Versuch, wieder Kontakt zum Kometenlander Philae herzustellen, wurde nun abgebrochen. In den ergangenen Tagen hat er sich nicht zurückgemeldet, das heißt aber nicht, dass er nichts empfangen hat.

Link: www.heise.de

Rosetta’s lander Philae wakes up from hibernation

Tweet Rosetta's lander Philae is out of hibernation! The signals were received at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June. More than 300 data packets have been analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). "Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," explains DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec. "The lander is ready for operations." For 85 seconds Philae "spoke" with its team on ground, via Rosetta, in the first contact since going into hibernation in November. When analysing the status data it became clear that Philae also must have been awake earlier: "We have also received historical data - so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier." Now the scientists are waiting for the next contact.  There are still more than 8000 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. Philae shut down on 15 November 2014 at 1:15 CET after being in operation on the comet for about 60 hours. Since 12 March 2015 the communication unit on orbiter Rosetta was turned on to listen out for the lander. More information when we have it! Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its Member States and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is contributed by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

Link: blogs.esa.int

Philae found!

Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Link: www.esa.int