The Philae lander, part of the European Space Agency's
Rosetta mission to comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, was feared lost in space or wrecked on the surface of a strange, double-lobed comet last November after it failed to attach itself to the surface on its first landing attempt. The lander seems to have then bounced wildly in the deformed, alien microgravity, and was thought to have eventually come to rest in a crevice and possibly damaged. Philae then quietly faded away as its solar panels were unable to gather enough light to keep it talking to the Rosetta mothership orbiting above. But over the weekend, after spending months in space as the comet swung closer and closer to the sun, the plucky little spacecraft surprised many by announcing it has survived its near-death experience and is now sending
back new data:
The ESA reports that 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." Scientists are now awaiting further 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. Since 12 March 2015 the communication unit on orbiter Rosetta was turned on to listen out for the lander.
Comets spend most of their years as inert, frozen snowballs drifting in slow orbits in the outer solar system. But every now and then they come in closer to the sun, heat up, vent material and create huge trails in the sky known since ancient times. Philae is in the perfect position to record this dynamic process from the surface of a comet for the first time, as 67/P makes its closest approach to the sun later this summer.