“電池耗盡”小型彗星着陸機，七個月後首次恢復操作

A few weeks ago the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

「電池切れ」彗星小型着陸機、７か月ぶりに復旧

2015年06月15日 22時51分

　欧州宇宙機関（ＥＳＡ）は１４日、史上初めて昨年彗星(すいせい)に着陸したものの、直後に電池切れで通信が途絶えた小型着陸機「フィラエ」が、７か月ぶりに復旧したことを明らかにした。

　フィラエは昨年１１月、探査機ロゼッタから分離されチュリュモフ・ゲラシメンコ彗星に降下したが、着陸時に跳びはね、予定外のくぼ地付近に着地。充電に必要な太陽光が十分に当たらず、電気を２日半で使い果たし、信号が途絶えた。

　ＥＳＡによると、フィラエからの信号が１３日（日本時間１４日）、ドイツにある管制センターに届いた。通信時間は１分２５秒だった。

　フィラエは通信前から復旧していたとみられ、８０００以上のデータが記録されているという。ＥＳＡの担当者は「フィラエは運用できる状態だ」とコメントしている。

(試譯文)

 On the 14th (June) it was made clear by the European Space Agency (ESA) that a small landing machine "Firae" that had a historical comet landing last year, with its communication severed immediately after landing due to no battery, had resumed operation after 7 months.

 Firae was separated from the probing machine Rosetta and fell on the comet Churyumofu Gerashimenko in November last year. But during the landing it jumped and landed near an unplanned pit. It could not get the necessary sunlight to re-charge sufficiently, its signal stopped when electricity was used up in 2 and a half days.

 According to ESA, on 13^th (June) (Japan time on 14th) a signal was received from Firae by the operating center in Germany. The communication time was 1 minute 25 seconds.

 Firae was thought to have resumed the normal communication, and it was said that more than 8000 data were recorded. A person in charge of ESA was commenting that "Firae is in an operational mode".

It is nice to know that this space project now can be continued.