AN ABINGDON scientist who helped build the Philae comet lander has spoken about his delight at getting a “second bite of the cherry”.

Martin Whalley, of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, said he had a grin on his face as he heard the news the scuppered lander had “woken up” at the weekend after seven months in a state of hibernation.

Mr Whalley, who lives in Abingdon with wife Frances and their six-year-old son James, spent the first 10 years of his career working on his team’s part of the lander – a gas analyser.

In November, after travelling through space for a decade, the craft crashed into a cold, dark area of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko when one of its landing thrusters failed.

Lying in a ditch, its solar power panels could not catch the sunlight.

But now the comet has moved closer to the sun the light has hit the panels, bringing the lander to life.

Mr Whalley said the craft, equipped with a suite of miniature laboratories, now has a chance to explore the comet in its “active” stage, closer to the sun, which scientists never expected to do.

He said: “When I heard the news I had this big grin on my face.

“It will give us the opportunity to carry out experiments now the comet is active, and learn more about the life of a comet.”

He said James, who goes to Long Furlong Primary School, was just as excited about the news – they attending the official “landing” event at Harwell together in November.

Mr Whalley joined the Science and Technology Facilities Council laboratory at Harwell in 1993 aged 23.

His team created one of 10 instruments on board the lander – a gas analyser designed by Open University scientists and named Ptolemy after the ancient Greek astronomer.

Mr Whalley said: “Now we have a second bite of the cherry, but the lander is now ‘alive’ at a point it was never intended to be.”

Now, no one is quite sure what Philae might find.