Philae awakens

By Rechell McDonald
After months of silence from the lander Philae, which became the first ever man-made craft to land on a comet, the lander has finally begun to show signs of life again. Its initial landing did not go smoothly, and, instead of landing in an open expanse where Philae could collect enough solar power to continue operating until the comet was destroyed by the sun, it bounced on first impact and settled in the shadow of a crater rim. This left Philae with a finite amount of juice to collect data. When Philae went silent last year, its team of scientists crossed their fingers and hoped Philae would awaken as the comet hurdled ever closer to the sun.
The good news is that all the waiting has paid off, and the mission was not a failure. Although Philae was only functional for about a minute and a half, it was enough to transmit a great deal of data back to Earth and, as the comet keeps on its trajectory, scientists predict more periods of wakefulness as the shadow Philae is in dissipates. There is evidence to suggest that this was, in fact, not the first time Philae awoke on the comet since it lost power initially but, for whatever reason, its transmission attempts were not received on Earth.
The comet will be closest to the sun on August 13, 2015, with scientists predicting further transmissions containing much more data. To keep up to date on this historic mission, follow Philae on twitter for updates; that’s right, Philae Tweets! @Philae2014.