RosettaAMA

Well, it isn't really the batteries' fault! The batteries were meant to be recharged by solar panels but because Philae hopped a couple of times after the first touchdown, it ended up in shadow for nearly all the time (roughly one hour of sunlight every 12-hour "day" on the comet). It is like trying to power your house with solar panels when you live in Alaska just below the arctic circle during the winter. We are not sure yet where Philae is, but if it is at what some people think is the most likely place, the seasonal change toward spring in Philae's hemisphere should bring Philae into much more sunlight on a time scale of months. That, coupled with the fact that the comet is getting closer to the sun, should warm up the batteries enough to take a charge and then keep them charged. I.e, don't blame the batteries, blame Philae for wanting to go into a winter den for hibernation. ma

We will probably disagree on which discovery was most significant. For me the most significant discovery from the Rosetta orbiter thus far is that the outgassing at these large distances from the sun is not driven the way we expected (super-volatiles rather than water). And again just for me, the most significant discovery from Philae was the existence of a hard surface underneath the soft material at the first touchdown point. ma

We expect to have enough energy to boot around March next year. Then Philae needs to be heated until we can think of starting to charge the battery. So enough power to run the system, heat it and do charging or other operations we can expect early summer. Once charging can be started, it might take some comet days to charge the battery completely. [mm]

yes, one half. Sorry, forgot the 'half'. (ip)

One of the most significant discoveries to me was simply the shape: how likely is it that we chose the most bizarre object in the solar system as our target?

And second: yes, the hard surface. I expected the comet to be more fluffy. mk