Hope for Philae
In his most recent blog on the latest data and lessons from Philae Geurts was positive about the possibilities, as Philae on the surface of 67P was obviously “alive and well.” Indeed the signals gave proof, that ” the lander was warm and its solar panels were receiving sunlight.”
Astonishing achievement
In total Rosetta and Philae had six moments of contact of which the last one was on June 24th. “All in all, the sparse stored and real-time data showed that temperatures had increased from -55 degrees Celsius in May to -5 degrees Celsius on 13 June, that the battery was charging and the comet days were getting longer.”
For Koen Geurts and his team it remained unsure then whether they would manage to get in contact with Philae which is predicted to be operational until the end of this year. “If you, too, are wondering: Will we hear from Philae again? Guess you will just have to wait and see.”
The videomessage – you can see it on https://twitter.com/Philae2014 – he now gave therefore is a signal to become more hopeful again. It would be an astonishing technological and scientific achievement if he and his DLR-colleagues would be able to get into contact and exchange data and insights from the cometsurface for the third time over one year of the turbulent life of Chury shooting through space and around the sun.?
