On June 14th 2015, the European Space Agency announced that comet lander, Philae, which landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November of 2014, had finally awaken from its hibernation. Philae went into hibernation after landing in the shadow of a cliff, which prevented it from receiving enough sunlight to recharge its solar batteries. Philae sent back data for 57 hours before it ran out of power.
Stephen Ulamec, Philae's project manager, stated that, "the lander is doing well, operating at a temperature of -35 degrees Celsius and a power of 24 watts." The lander has already analyzed 300 of its more than 8,000 data packets. In the coming days, scientist hope to access those data packets in an effort to determine where Philae actually landed.
Scientists are set to change the orbit of the Rosetta spacecraft, which has been orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Their goal is to bring the orbiter within 180 kilometers of the comet's surface, in order to give the Rosetta spacecraft stronger and longer communication links with the Philae lander. The Rosetta spacecraft can only receive a signal from Philae while the lander is in direct sunlight, and in a direct line of sight.
Philae's mission is to study whether comets may have contributed to life on Earth. It is equipped with a small drill and two mass spectrometers that are designed to analyze the chemical composition of the comet's soil. Scientist are hoping that the comet's proximity to the sun will provide Philae with enough energy to carry out its objective.
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