downlink
人類史上初の無人飛行船の彗星着陸に関連するニュースです。着陸船Philaeは，彗星に降り立った後太陽から隠れてしまい，しばらく太陽光エネルギーを得られない状態にありました。地球のオペレーターが着陸船に指示を送り，ようやく充電をはじめられる位置に辿り着いたそうです。
記事の中で気になった単語は"downlink"です。『Wisdom英和辞典第三版』（三省堂）によると「ダウンリンク （通信衛星などから地上への通信経路），をダウンリンクする, 通信衛星から地上へ送信する」などの意味がありました。専門用語のようですね。既に着陸船から彗星の情報がダウンリングされているため，成分の解析ははじめられるのだと思われます。（Ume）
Comet lander: Philae sends data from surface
Even if the probe falls silent over the weekend, researchers say they are thrilled with the amount of data already acquired.
It was suggested that as much as 80% of the primary science objectives had been achieved before the latest downlink. And this will now have been boosted still further.
BBC Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott watched the radio pass from the European Space Agency's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
"It was amazing, and everyone here is elated. If you'd asked them to write down what they'd wanted from this pass - it would have been exactly this," Prof Lintott reported.
In the latest tranche of data are the results from the drilling attempt made earlier in the day.
This had been an eagerly anticipated activity. Getting into the surface layers and bringing up a sample to analyse onboard was seen as central to the core mission of Philae.
