Philae is boldly going where no man should go – let’s leave space to the robots | Philip Ball

From Voyager to Rosetta, I've balked at the personification of unmanned space missions. But if it ends our obsession with human spaceflight, I say go for it

"I'm awake! How long have I been asleep?" This message was tweeted on Sunday by the European Space Agency's spacecraft Philae. The probe tumbled into a dark ditch on a comet last November after problems landing on the icy surface. Deprived of sunlight, Philae's solar panels were unable to supply power, and the craft was feared lost. But Philae's resurrection, as the comet moves nearer the sun and receives more light, has amazed and galvanised not just the scientists conducting the mission, but also public interest the world over.

But of course Philae didn't wake up, nor did it tweet to that effect. Philae is not "plucky", it is not R2D2 or Wall-E: it is a machine designed to examine a comet, equipped with just a tiny fraction of the computer power in your mobile phone. Sorry about that.

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