About 60 hours after its spectacular landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Garasimenko, the European Space Agency (ESA) probe Philae stopped transmitting data. For seven excruciating months, scientists around the world waited and hoped that Philae’s solar panels would get enough light to wake it up so it could reveal further secrets about the comet it now calls home.
Late on the evening of June 13, ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt suddenly got a message. For 85 seconds the lander spoke to 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. The lander is ready for operations,” said DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec in a statement.
So far teams have analyzed more than 300 data packets, relayed by the Rosetta spacecraft. In their analysis the teams determined that the lander must have been awake well before it started transmitting.
“We have also received historical data – so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier,” say the researchers.
Researchers are now waiting for further contact. The estimated 8000 data packets in Philae’s memory will provide information about the comet as well as details about what happened to cause the lander to go dark for seven months.
Philae spent 10 years on board Rosetta en route to 67P/Churyumov-Garasimenko. The goal of the mission is to learn more about the composition, life and history of comets which are some of the earliest building blocks of our solar system.
About four and a half billion years ago the planets began to slowly form as dust and gas gathered into larger and larger objects and collide with each other. Comets are believed to be made of material which could have, but did not, become a part of the solar system’s planets and moons. It is still likely that comets such as Churyumov-Garasimenko went into making up the Earth.
Instruments on board Rosetta and the washing-machine sized lander Philae will analyze the composition of the comet, including drilling down to collect samples beneath its surface. The chemical composition of the comet may provide clues about comets contribution to the evolution of the Earth and possibly the life that inhabits it.
Although the seven month silence from Philae is a setback, there is still considerable opportunity to collect information. The Rosetta mission is scheduled to continue until December of this year and a six month extension is still possible according to the ESA website.
