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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The European Space Agency's (ESA's) Philae technical manager Koen Geurts and operations manager Cinzia Fantinati have written a blog post [esa.int] about ongoing efforts to restore contact [theregister.co.uk] with the Philae lander on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko:

Since Rosetta's lander Philae first woke up from hibernation and called 'home' on 13 June, the teams at the Lander Control Center (LCC – DLR), the Science Operations and Navigation Center (SONC – CNES), the Max-Planck Institute (MPS – Göttingen) and the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (Wigner Research Centre for Physics – Budapest) have been working with ESA's Rosetta Mission Operations Centre (RMOC – ESOC) and the Rosetta Science Ground Segment (RSGS – ESAC), and in close cooperation with the Philae and Rosetta scientists, to establish regular and predictable contacts with Philae, and to resume scientific measurements.

The ESA is attempting to patch Philae so that it only uses its primary transmitter unit, TX1, instead of switching to a likely short-circuiting TX2 after TX1 times out.

It has been previously suggested [theregister.co.uk] that Philae's less-than-ideal landing spot may have protected the craft from being destroyed by the Sun.

Original Submission