Berlin, Germany. (AP) _ The Philae probe which landed on a comet and awakened from hibernation seven months and managed to communicate with Earth for more than a minute, reported Sunday the European Space Agency.
The spacecraft November became the first that settles on the ice surface of a comet, called 7P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Shortly after his historic decline, Philae succeeded experiments and send data back to Earth for about 60 hours before its batteries were exhausted and was forced to shut down their systems.
The scientists hoped that the probe resume its operation when the comet approached the sun because solar panels would capture device light enough to recharge your batteries. The expectation was fulfilled on Saturday at 10:28 pm (2028 GMT) when the probe sent a signal to Earth again.
“I’m not surprised what happened, but it’s exciting for someone to call suddenly at night and say `we have a signal Philae ‘after a wait of several months,” Ulamec Stephan, project manager for the German Aerospace Center (DLR by its German acronym) said.
“we are happy”. The short burst of communication of the probe containing 300 data packets and then transmitted to Earth by the orbiting mother ship Rosetta comet.
“We only received information for about 85 seconds. Only records maintenance and probe systems “Ulamec said. That transmission was enough for scientists knew that Philae is well and has begun to capture enough sunlight to maintain communications.
Ulamec said the probe apparently had been awake several days until contacted the Earth because some of the information they received packages containing historical records scientists.
Experts now proceed to change the orbit of Rosetta to give you more time communicating with Philae and can give orders to run new readings, resulting in new scientific information. The next opportunity to communicate with Philae will be Sunday night, according Ulamec.- (By FRANK JORDANS)
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