Philae is back! :D

[{ Emilia }]

Looks like we can look forward to even more information from our favourite little comet lander.

Source: ESA

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.

ESA has started tweeting on Philae's and Rosetta's twitter account again so that might be a source of entertainment, too.

So what can we expect now? I guess Philae is now close enough to the sun to finally provide a constant stream of data again. Maybe we'll also get more info on the organic materials found on the surface?

Anyway, an exciting day for science, right?!

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Hello Philae! You are awake! But where are you? I can't seem to be able to find you... I might be going mad, but I think I am seeing five of you, and a giant cat face! Are you the blob on the centre right?

 

[iguana_tonante]

I'm doing a little dance.

Ok, I'm doing a big, fabulous, ass-shaking dance.

 

[sojourner]

Let's hope to get some good science out of it before the solar panels get occluded again.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Philae o fish is back!!!

WOOOO!!!

 

[Amaris]

Woohoo! Let's get busy sciencing the hell out of that comet!

 

[SPCTRE]

(from NeoGAF)

Thank you sun

Amazing news, I am praising so hard right now.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

From the article:

"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.""

Philae has been busy sciencing the hell out of it behind our backs. For days. And now it is not sending the rest of it. It doesn't want us or Rosetta apparently. Maybe it's covering something up?

The other four Philae landers perhaps? Or is it just a descendant of Han Solo?


By the way, I love the idea that we might attempt to land the orbiter. That will be freaking awesome.