The Rosetta mission launched over eleven years ago, on March 2, 2004, with the goal of performing a detailed study of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In November of last year, the Rosetta space probe released Philae, the lander responsible for directly analyzing the comet.
While we were quick to celebrate the touchdown, this achievement came with a twist: Philae landed in a crater, which had rendered its solar panels obsolete for the last seven months. The European Space Agency (ESA) held hope, as the comet's path would only bring it closer to the sun, but the outlook was uncertain. We had achieved the first-ever soft landing on a comet nucleus, but that was the only thing we were certain of. For all we knew, this would be the last tweet Philae would ever send:
Like a bear at the end of winter, Philae woke up after many months in hibernation, and Twitter exploded.
Aside from some cute tweets though, the Philae lander sent back some data packets. We're uncertain what they contain, as they're unreleased as-of-yet, but they're currently "being evaluated at the German Aerospace Center," so hopefully we'll know soon. Researchers have cause for optimism — they've stated that Philae should be receiving about 3 hours of sunlight per day, up from an expected 1.3 hours. Philae is loaded with ten instruments meant for very specific tasks. The team at the German Aerospace center has stated that they'll be turned on once Philae's health has been inspected. While they're uncertain about the specific order that the tools will be activated, Philae Lander Project Leader Stephan Ulamec has some insight into their process, "First, the non-mechanical instruments will be used — that is, instruments that do not drill or hammer." Non-mechanical tools use less power than their mechanical counterparts, so it only makes sense that the ESA team is easing into the reawakening of this scrutinized space probe. We've included a video from the German Aerospace Center below which has a bit more information about the Rosetta mission. When you're done watching it, share it with your friends on Facebook, and be sure to let us know what you think!
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