It was totally awesome to follow all the messages that where live tweeted from the ESA headquarters in Darmstadt. It was also very exciting. Nobody did know if a link could be established between Rosetta and Philae tonight. Philae’s solar panels didn’t catch enough sunlight to charge the onboard battery the battery would be depleted soon. A bit later than expected the signal was acquired and soon it was clear that Philae established a solid communication link with Rosetta. It was really cool to see that data of all scientific experiments where relayed to Earth, one by one. The drilling of the first comet sample ever turned out be be successful and soon all data from COSAC the Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment that analyses the drilled monster was received. In the mean time battery voltage was dwindling, but the communiction link stayed strong as data from the last instruments where relayed to Rosetta and from her, to Earth. Philae’s mission is a 100% success! At 0:28 UT due to low power Philae switched to standby. All the experiments where switched off and only house keeping data was transmitted in a low speed.
At 0:36 UT ESA operations tweeted: “Loss of signal #LOS No more comm with @Philae2014 All science data from First Science Sequence successfully downloaded ” Philae started to take a nap and we all hope that this brave little lander will talk to Rosetta and us somewhere in the future…
It was great to witness Philae’s landing and this one chance window to get as much scientific data relayed back to Earth, while the clock was ticking and the battery was inseparably and very soon draining. Would it hold up so all experiments could run and all data could be relayed? Yes it did! We can all be proud that witnessed this event. Now it’s up to the scientist to analyze all the data so we all can see what Philae found on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.