http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33126885

The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth.

Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November.

It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat.

The comet has since moved nearer to the sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC’s science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

The probe tweeted the message, “Hello Earth! Can you hear me?”

Jean-Yves Le Gall, the president of France’s CNES space agency, told AFP that Philae had sent signals for a period of two minutes “as well as 40 seconds worth of data”.

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Good-o,

So we can expect some slow improvements to the comms over the next few weeks/months?

• The probe tweeted the message, “Hello Earth! Can you hear me?”

It tweeted? You’d think it would have a direct line to mission control…

It would be interesting if they got to hold a conversation with it though…

party_pants said:

Good-o,

So we can expect some slow improvements to the comms over the next few weeks/months?

Early days but I suppose there will be a period of testing and great care before any decision about movement is made.

dv said:

The probe tweeted the message, “Hello Earth! Can you hear me?”

—-

Did it really, or is that just a figure of speech?

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33126885

really.

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

The probe tweeted the message, “Hello Earth! Can you hear me?”

—-

Did it really, or is that just a figure of speech?

It is probably as good a message as any to get handshaking protocols, signal strength etc sorted.

dv said:

party_pants said:

Good-o,

So we can expect some slow improvements to the comms over the next few weeks/months?

Early days but I suppose there will be a period of testing and great care before any decision about movement is made.

I was hoping it could just do some static tests, Even that would be a huge achievement.

ChrispenEvan said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33126885

really.

I’m not convinced that tweet was actually sent by the lander.

The Rev Dodgson said:

ChrispenEvan said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33126885

really.

I’m not convinced that tweet was actually sent by the lander.

So cynical for one so young.

Well that’s damn good news.

I hope they hold a press conference with blokes wearing shirts with naked women all over them and introduced by a buxom Playboy bunny girl ( chick ).

That’s good news

Peak Warming Man said:

I hope they hold a press conference with blokes wearing shirts with naked women all over them and introduced by a buxom Playboy bunny girl ( chick ).

that was some shirt

Comet on 5th June:

Bloody marvellous. We’ve been keeping our fingers crossed over this one.

The original ESA press release is http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_lander_Philae_wakes_up_from_hibernation

Rosetta’s lander Philae has woken up after seven months in hibernation on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

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

Follow-up on the above story.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Philae_wake-up_triggers_intense_planning

The receipt of signals from Rosetta’s Philae lander on 13 June after 211 days of hibernation marked the start of intense activity. … On the evening of 13 June, a weak but solid radio link between Rosetta and the lander was finally established for 85 seconds. More than 300 ‘packets’ – 663 kbits – of lander housekeeping telemetry were received. This information had been stored on board at an as-yet-to-be determined time in the past, as much as several days to a few weeks, so does not necessarily reflect the lander’s current status.

A second, smaller burst of lander data was received on Sunday, 14 June, at about 21:26 GMT, lasting just a few seconds. These data were confirmed to give the current status, showing the lander’s internal temperature had already risen to –5ºC.

Engineers at the Lander Control Centre have determined that Philae is already being exposed to sufficient sunlight to heat it to an acceptable operating temperature and to generate electricity. “Power levels increase during the local ‘comet day’ – the part of the about-12 hour comet rotation when Philae is in sunlight – from 13 W at comet sunrise to above 24 W,” notes ESA’s Patrick Martin, Rosetta Mission Manager. “It needs at least 19 W to switch on the transmitter.”

The telemetry downloaded covered the lander’s status for a full night–day cycle of the comet, which is helping ground teams to understand how the Sun is shining on the lander. The solar panels appear to be receiving power for over 135 minutes in each illumination period.

“While the information we have is very preliminary, it appears that the lander is in as good a condition as we could have hoped,”

Images arriving from Plilae.

Europe on Tuesday announced its comet-chasing mission Rosetta would be extended until September 2016 and may end with the dying mothership touching down on the comet to be reunited with its tiny lander.

mollwollfumble said:

Images arriving from Plilae.

Europe on Tuesday announced its comet-chasing mission Rosetta would be extended until September 2016 and may end with the dying mothership touching down on the comet to be reunited with its tiny lander.

See also http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2015/06/Replay_of_Rosetta_conference This 87 minute long video was released on 17 June 2015. Among other things it contains a list of the science experiments on board Philae.