ESA’s comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta awakening in few minutes
Oce Eeco stashed this in Physics
Rosetta and its lander: Philae
"ESA’s comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta will wake up from 31 months of deep space slumber."
Simulation of the lander Philae on the comet
"1 - Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet’s nucleus.
2 - It will be the first spacecraft to fly alongside a comet as it heads towards the inner Solar System.
3 - Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to examine from close proximity how a frozen comet is transformed by the warmth of the Sun.
4 - Shortly after its arrival at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta orbiter will despatch a robotic lander for the first controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus.
5 - The Rosetta lander’s instruments will obtain the first images from a comet’s surface and make the first in situ analysis to find out what it is made of.
6 - On its way to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta will pass through the main asteroid belt, with the option to be the first European close encounter with one or more of these primitive objects.
7 - Rosetta will be the first spacecraft ever to fly close to Jupiter’s orbit using solar cells as its main power source. "
Rosetta's journey across the Solar System
This is a... 10 years journey... can you imagine waiting for 10 years to see if the project of your life will succeed or fail miserably?
What's funny is that they have no idea of the texture of the comet's floor. So the lander might crash, or bounce, or sink inside it... Huehuehue
"Previous missions have shown that comets contain complex organic molecules - compounds that are rich in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.
Intriguingly, these are the elements which make up nucleic acids and amino acids, the essential ingredients for life as we know it. Did life on Earth begin with the help of comet seeding? Rosetta may help us to find the answer to this fundamental question."
So the first signals from Rosetta should be announced pretty soon on this live stream: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/esalive?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+google%2FHgqm+%28Astronomy%29
The landing will happen in November 2014.
Finger crossed!
Information source: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/EzpQ0
Stashed in: Awesome, Meaning of Life, Space, space, Space!, Earth, Space, Physics, Planetary Science, Astro
Update: Signal received! They are now sending requests back to Rosetta to check datas. : )
Cool. Then what?
"The landing will happen in November 2014." And before they will observe the comet nuclei to chose the best place for the lander.
It really stuck with me when you said that they don't know the texture of the comet's floor.
Did life on Earth begin with the help of comet seeding? <--- fascinating
mars seeding?
I can see that future.
Life brought by comets is a possibility seriously studied. That's why Rosetta is a so exciting mission. : D
Agreed, this will be illuminating.
By the way Jared, we have found meteorites on Earth that are from Mars... : )
That's cool. Random occurrence or the hand of intelligent beings?
Random asteroid crashed on Mars and the explosion launched new Mars-asteroids to space, from which a few ended on Earth. And even less than this few have been discovered. Probably the most rare and expansive material on Earth nowadays. ; )
I'm thinking of the odds that something from Mars could randomly land on earth.
Those odds are tiny, right?
Not that much depending on the period it happened.
There's a period, in the Solar System history, called Late Heavy Bombardment that was a kind of constant meteorite shower (because of a funny migration dance between Jupiter and Saturn, that almost ate our little planet: see the "Nice model").
An apocalyptic asteroid flux hit all the little planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) at this period, so the chance to send Mars rocks to Earth wasn't so tiny.
I see -- that makes sense. As opposed to now, when the chances are very very small.
Exactly
10:34 AM Jan 20 2014