After 211 days of hibernation module Philae a lot of work – a REGNUM

->

Paris, 16 June 2015, 04:21 – REGNUM Receiving signals from comet 67P / Churov-Gerasimenko was the start of a new stage of scientific work of the project team Rosetta. Mission specialists together with partners from the European Space Agency (ESA) are working on the adjustment of the flight plan the space station Rosetta, trying to provide quality communication with a foothold in the nucleus of the comet Philae. Current information on the scientific mission of experts reported at the ESA.

On the surface of the core 67P / Churov-Gerasimenko research robot Philae «prikometilsya» More November 12, 2014, flying to your destination on board the space probe Rosetta for over ten years. Planting unit did not go very well: the machine several times bounced from the surface of a comet, causing it managed to gain a foothold in the shade of a small cliff, which is located a hundred meters from the planned landing site. As Philae was not able to recharge the solar battery to operate in the shadows before disconnecting it was about 60 hours. November 15, 2014 at 00:36 GMT, communications with the device has been lost. Until full discharge research module had to pass the probe photos and data on the state of the comet’s nucleus at ten instruments.

Despite the seven-month absence of the signal, the scientists hoped that soon Philae out of the shadows and be able to continue the study. Already in March 2015 – a time when conditions on the surface of the comet at the location of the module began to improve – mission specialists periodically includes a receiver to detect signals in the hope of Philae. And now, after 211 days of waiting in the evening on June 13 at 20:28 GMT, the connection was established. For 85 seconds, the research unit had to pass more than 300 packets of data, including pictures of the surface.

All the subsystems are functioning properly Philae, says project manager Dr. Stefan Ulamek (Stephan Ulamec). According to a working temperature at the time of the second exit on the link (June 14 at 21:26 GMT) rose to -5 degrees Celsius to -35 registered a day earlier. According to design engineers, quantity produced Philae sunlight will soon be enough to establish a stable relationship.

As reported in an interview to RT project manager Matt Taylor fears that Philae not communicate it did not have. “Some, I heard, felt such fears, but I personally believe that the module returns. So it should be. He just spent in sleep mode longer than we expected, “- said Taylor.

Talking about the mission of the project, the scientist recalled that studying comets, mankind can understand the “how and from which the solar system formed.” Comets – a “window to the past”, the remains of space objects since the birth of the solar system, explained Taylor. The fact that the planets once emerged from interstellar matter, over billions of years has undergone significant chemical evolution. Comets also, because of their small size and weak action of gravitational forces, continue to travel across the expanses of the universe in a relatively unchanged. The composition of comets may be primitive organic molecules that, according to supporters of the theory of panspermia, is indirect evidence that life on Earth has been brought out of space.