The comet lander Philae has awakened from a seven-month hibernation and managed to communicate with Earth for more than a minute, the European Space Agency said on Sunday.
The probe became the first spacecraft to land on a comet when it >touched down on the icy surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. Shortly after its historic landing, Philae managed to conduct experiments and send data to Earth for about 60 hours before its batteries were depleted and it >was forced into hibernation .
The German Aerospace Centre, which operates Philae, said that the probe resumed communication at 10.28 p.m. on Saturday (1.58 a.m. IST, Sunday), sending about 300 packages of data to Earth via its mother ship Rosetta, which is orbiting the comet.
“Philae is doing very well,” said DLR’s project manager Stephan Ulamec, adding, “The lander is ready for operations.”
Mr. Ulamec said the probe appears to have been awake for some time before it called home, because some of the packages received contained historical data.
Philae has more than 8,000 data packages still stored in its memory, which scientists hope to receive when the probe next communicates with Earth. The data contained therein may help them determine where exactly Philae has landed.
The probe’s exact location has been a mystery, though scientists have narrowed down its likely location based on images and other measurements received from Philae and Rosetta.
A timeline of Philae’s 11-year journey
March 2, 2004: Europe’s unmanned probe Rosetta takes off from Kourou, French Guiana, after a series of delays, including an abandoned January 2003 launch window because of a rocket problem.
February 25, 2007: Rosetta carries out a close flyby of Mars. European Space Agency’s mission control breaks out in applause after the end of 15 tense minutes of radio silence as the craft passes behind the Red Planet.
September 5, 2008: Probe successfully > passes close to an asteroid 400 million km from Earth. The spacecraft loses its radio signal for 90 minutes as planned during the flyby of the Steins asteroid, also known as Asteroid 2867.
July 10, 2010: Between Mars and Jupiter, Rosetta transmits its first pictures from the largest asteroid ever visited by a satellite after it >flies by Lutetia as close as 3,200 km. It is the closest look to date at the Lutetia asteroid.
January 20, 2014: Waking after almost three years of hibernation, Rosetta sends its first signal back to Earth. Systems had been powered down in 2011 to conserve energy, leaving scientists in the dark for 31 months.
August 6, 2014: Rosetta swings alongside comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
November 12, 2014: The probe >releases the Philae lander and it drops to the comet’s surface. Seven hours later, Philae touches down on the comet. | Editorial: >Cometary quest
November 15, 2014: Philae goes into hibernation after performing experiments and sending data back to Earth for 60 hours.
February 14, 2015: Rosetta swoops to a distance of just 6 km above the surface of the comet to take close-up pictures of the surface.
June 11, 2015: Scientists say they may have caught a glimpse of Philae, whose exact location remains unknown. After analysing images and other data collected over the past months they identified several possible sites including one bright spot described as “a good candidate for the lander.”
June 13, 2015: Philae communicates with Earth for the first time in seven months in a sign that it has come out of hibernation.
