Philae’s revival could advance science by 20 years

Rosetta's comet lander Philae is awake and could now work for many weeks. Its results will short-cut decades of waiting for more comet science

Somewhere in the shadows of comet 67P, the Philae lander has woken up. The news arrived late on Saturday when an 85 second burst of communications was relayed to Earth by ESA's Rosetta mothership. A further three ten-second bursts were received on Sunday.

Analysing that information shows that Philae has 24 Watts of power available, and this is enough to start performing science. "The lander is ready for operations," said DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec in the ESA blog post announcing the revival.