After traveling billions of miles for 10 years in pursuit of its mission to observe and study a comet in close range, European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is now less than a week away to fulfilling one of the most critical aspects of its mission: to land a robotic probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The Philae lander is set to land on the comet on Nov. 12 at 7:35 a.m. PST, but confirmation of the landing will be made available at 8:02 a.m. PST. If everything goes well as planned, the event will mark the first time that a spacecraft will land on a comet.
"It's quite extraordinary that we are able to do this -- to track a comet and see the evolution of a comet," said ESA lander system engineer Laurence O'Rourke. "This is the first time this has been done -- to land on a comet, to follow it."
ESA scientists have long been preparing for the historic touchdown. Complex mathematical calculations were made to ensure that the lander will land safely on the comet. Earlier this year, five potential touchdown sites were identified, with Site J eventually being chosen. The site, now officially known as Agilkia, offers the best option for Philae lander's safe landing.
Agilkia was so named after it was chosen among other entries in the public competition initiated by ESA for a better name for Site J. Agilkia's name is based on an island on the Nile where buildings in ancient times were relocated after the Philae island was flooded. The names given to the Rosetta spacecraft and Philae lander also had an Egyptian theme.
As early as Monday and Tuesday, Rosetta planners were already checking out the landing orbit and preparing Rosetta to release the lander. The controllers will be busiest late Tuesday night when they have only four hours to transmit commands to the Philae and ensure it is ready to be deployed.
"We have 4 hours to put them together, check to verify they are consistent, uplink to the spacecraft ... and double-check they are OK to the spacecraft," said Rosetta operations manager Andreas Accomazzo."It's a pretty dense set of activities we have to do."
The lander will take images of the comet's surface after the touchdown. It will also drill into Comet 67P's rugged surface to study its composition and observe how exposure to the sun affects the comet.
