Sleeping Rosetta spacecraft wakes up for comet rendezvous

Ya, if they dont supply nuclear power. There is no excuse for this probe needing to have solar, it was an error caused by politics.

I figure they know more about it than us and let it go at that.

http://www.space.com/12118-space-nuclear-power-50-years-transit-4a.html

Here is a short history of US nuclear powered satellites and probes. Your best learn up, because the ignorant through history tend to get lied to and used by their betters.

just heard on the radio that contact was made again tonight
hopefully some of the data was transferred

Racing to stay alive after a bouncy double landing that left it in the shadows, the Philae comet probe performed some technical gymnastics Friday to reposition itself to get more sunlight and transmit a trove of data before its batteries died.

As mission control nervously waited for confirmation that the maneuvers had succeeded, scientists got some good news: Philae began sending data back to Earth after re-establishing its radio link with the Rosetta orbiter.

About 7:45 p.m. ET, the European Space Agency reported it had lost the signal and had no more communication with the lander, which had switched to standby because of low power and had turned off its instruments. But all scientific data from the first sequence had been transmitted successfully before the little lander went to sleep.

"I'm feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap…," it tweeted.

"You've done a great job Philae, something no spacecraft has ever done before," the agency replied.

On Saturday, scientists were listening for Philae's signals, but they believe it is unlikely that communication will be restablished soon, said ESA's head of mission operations, Paolo Ferri.

"We don't know if the charge will ever be high enough to operate the lander again," Ferri told The Associated Press. "It is highly unlikely that we will establish any kind of communication any time soon, but nevertheless the orbiter will continue to listen for possible signals."

They were scheduled to check for communications at 5 a.m. ET, he said.

At about 6 p.m. ET Friday, the probe's body executed a 10-minute "lift & turn" on its landing gear, the ESA said. Philae reported that its 35-degree rotation was successful.

"Looks like a whole new comet from this angle ," the probe tweeted from outer space.


But about 35 minutes later, the lander said it was "running out of energy quite fast now" and "getting tired," with its battery voltage "approaching the limit soon now."

Even if Philae stays lost in a comet crater for the next year, the orbiter that traveled almost half a billion miles to get to this point will continue to orbit the comet and its lost lander.

Right now, Rosetta has been pulling out to a 30 kilometer orbit of the comet. It will come closer again early next month to get more details on the comet -- some of its flybys will be as close as 8 kilometers to the comet. There's a whole lot of potential science and data about comets, planets and our solar system packed in that process, building up to the trio's closest encounter with the sun, next August.

Before that point there may also be better opportunities to rouse Philae.

"We still hope that at a later stage of the mission, perhaps when we are nearer to the sun, that we might have enough solar illumination to wake up the lander and re-establish communication, " Stephan Ulamec, lander manager, said in an official statement.

For now though, Philae sleeps as Rosetta makes the rounds and works on a particularly important surveillance mission to analyze its new neighborhood and look for its lost lander. Take a look at the video below to see how the orbiter is performing the task at hand.

Did you hear the sounds sent from Philae? crazy!

No. My computer is so slow, I don't do much video.

It was on the news on the radio when I got home tonight - along with interviews with a bunch of giddy ESA scientists.

I view this event as being at least as important as the mars ventures. Possibly more so. I'm not smart enough to say for sure.

As Philae sleeps the comet continues on its ancient path slowly eroding over time. And four billion years from now a chunk of the cliff face breaks free and Philae sees the light of a red giant, wakes up and tweets, "I took a little nap. Where is everyone? How long have I been asleep?"

I found it and listened. Odd, is all I can say.

I was hoping it would happen a little bit sooner than that.

Poor little feller is just all tuckered out.

Because the parents did not feed him a proper diet. The shame.

The cup is not just half empty, it has nothing at all inside.

And? The purpose of a cup is to hold something. If it is empty, it loses its ability to function.

Don't ask me. Ask hawkeye.

Yeh, me too. But unless someone goes up there and gets it, it'll probably rest right there for billions of years. And when the sun grows old and swallows up the inner planets, maybe it'll get a little bit of light and "wake up" again (probably not really as I doubt the inner components could withstand the passage of that much time... but it was fun to think about)

How close to the star does this comet pass? The Rosetta probe and its lander may well not survive the perihelion portion of the comet's orbit.