Comet-chasing Rosetta Probe Revived after 31-month Slumber

摘要

Europe's Rosetta comet-chaser satellite on Jan. 20 awakened itself on schedule after a 31-month hibernation and began preparations for a spring rendezvous with a comet and a fall attempt to attach a probe to it. First using NASA's Deep Space Network and then adding the European Space Agency's own ground antennas, mission managers said all systems appeared functioning onboard Rosetta, which has set a record for the longest satellite hibernation followed by a successful restart. "Everything seems to be OK," said Matthew Taylor, Rosetta project scientist at the 20-nation European Space Agency. In a Jan. 24 press briefing with NASA officials, Taylor said the satellite's instruments would be gradually switched on in March and April, with observations to begin in May. Launched in March 2004, Rosetta and its small Philae lander are now some 800 million kilometers from Earth. The mission was placed into hibernation in June 2011 because it was too far from the sun to permit its solar arrays to provide full power. All but those essential services needed to keep the instruments from freezing were powered down.