After 10 years of hard work and one nerve-wracking night, the Rosetta
mission is on track to make history and land a man-made object on a
comet.
The lander Philae is expected to touch down on the surface of the comet 300 miles away from Earth at 11 a.m. Eastern time (give or take 15 minutes), send a panoramic image home, and begin analyzing it for scientists back on Earth.
The comet contains the materials that originally formed our solar system, frozen in time. By digging them out, we can learn more about the origins of our own planet. The Rosetta spacecraft has made invaluable observations about the comet's attributes, and it will continue to do so as it follows it around the sun for the next year. But Philae, if it lands, will be able to look more closely at the comet's physical and molecular composition.
"It's a look at the basic building blocks of our solar system, the ancient materials from which life emerged," said Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern in Switzerland, who is one of Rosetta's project leads. "It's like doing archaeology, but instead of going back 1,000 years, we can go back 4.6 billion."
Since
its launch in March of 2004 (which only took place after many
setbacks), Rosetta has flown by Earth three times, as well as making one
Mars flyby. At one point in 2011, the spacecraft even had to hibernate
for nearly three years. It flew so far from the sun -- nearly 500
million miles -- that its solar panels couldn't leech enough energy to
keep the spacecraft operational. But in January of this year, Rosetta
woke up — and quickly approached its target.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was discovered in 1969, and is roughly 2.5 miles in diameter. In a universe of unimaginable proportion, Rosetta's target is smaller than Columbia Heights.
The last leg of this landing has not been without its bumps in the road. Even as the mission approached its most critical moment, controllers at the European Space Agency reported last night a problem with the thruster on the lander that could make for a rough landing. The gravity of the problem — and the extent to which it threatened the mission — remained unknown. “We’ll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope,” blogged Stephan Ulamec, lander manager for the project.
Since its separation early this morning, Philae has been making a seven-hour-long drop to the surface. After successfully making a satellite connection with Rosetta (without which the probe would have been functionally lost) Philae sent home a goodbye picture of its mother-ship.
Now, we watch and wait. We may have to watch mission control experience the agony of an upside-down rover, lost forever. If the surface of the comet is too hard, the probe might bounce on impact and land badly. If the surface is too soft, it might sink instead of anchoring itself as planned.
"We're looking at the pictures of this comet and interpreting them the way we would somewhere on Earth, because we're just not tuned to understand what they mean for comet geology yet," said Claudia Alexander, the project scientist who's overseeing NASA's many contributions to the effort.
Unfortunately, the probe doesn't have any way of righting itself should this occur.
But even if the morning ends in disappointment, Rosetta has been -- and will continue to be -- a resounding success.
"The lander would be the icing on the cake," Altwegg said. "But we've been receiving data on the atmosphere of the comet since August."
Alexander agreed. "Even during the descent itself we'll be taking readings that will move our understanding of the comet forward leaps and bounds," she said.
And no matter what, Rosetta will continue to trail the targeted comet as it orbits the sun this year, no doubt giving scientists unprecedented insight into its composition.
The lander Philae is expected to touch down on the surface of the comet 300 miles away from Earth at 11 a.m. Eastern time (give or take 15 minutes), send a panoramic image home, and begin analyzing it for scientists back on Earth.
The comet contains the materials that originally formed our solar system, frozen in time. By digging them out, we can learn more about the origins of our own planet. The Rosetta spacecraft has made invaluable observations about the comet's attributes, and it will continue to do so as it follows it around the sun for the next year. But Philae, if it lands, will be able to look more closely at the comet's physical and molecular composition.
"It's a look at the basic building blocks of our solar system, the ancient materials from which life emerged," said Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern in Switzerland, who is one of Rosetta's project leads. "It's like doing archaeology, but instead of going back 1,000 years, we can go back 4.6 billion."
European space officials hope a probe from their Rosetta spacecraft will be the first to land on a comet’s surface.
A
poster illustrates the planned deployment of the Philae lander from the
Rosetta spacecraft. European space officials hope to land the probe on a
comet Wednesday at 11 a.m. Eastern time. European Space Agency via AP
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was discovered in 1969, and is roughly 2.5 miles in diameter. In a universe of unimaginable proportion, Rosetta's target is smaller than Columbia Heights.
The last leg of this landing has not been without its bumps in the road. Even as the mission approached its most critical moment, controllers at the European Space Agency reported last night a problem with the thruster on the lander that could make for a rough landing. The gravity of the problem — and the extent to which it threatened the mission — remained unknown. “We’ll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope,” blogged Stephan Ulamec, lander manager for the project.
Since its separation early this morning, Philae has been making a seven-hour-long drop to the surface. After successfully making a satellite connection with Rosetta (without which the probe would have been functionally lost) Philae sent home a goodbye picture of its mother-ship.
Now, we watch and wait. We may have to watch mission control experience the agony of an upside-down rover, lost forever. If the surface of the comet is too hard, the probe might bounce on impact and land badly. If the surface is too soft, it might sink instead of anchoring itself as planned.
"We're looking at the pictures of this comet and interpreting them the way we would somewhere on Earth, because we're just not tuned to understand what they mean for comet geology yet," said Claudia Alexander, the project scientist who's overseeing NASA's many contributions to the effort.
Unfortunately, the probe doesn't have any way of righting itself should this occur.
The
European Space Agency's unmanned Rosetta probe successfully released a
lander toward the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on
Wednesday. (AP)
"The lander would be the icing on the cake," Altwegg said. "But we've been receiving data on the atmosphere of the comet since August."
Alexander agreed. "Even during the descent itself we'll be taking readings that will move our understanding of the comet forward leaps and bounds," she said.
And no matter what, Rosetta will continue to trail the targeted comet as it orbits the sun this year, no doubt giving scientists unprecedented insight into its composition.
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