The European Space Agency's (ESA) solar-powered Rosetta orbiter will rise and shine on Monday after sleeping for two and a half years. The orbiter will begin the final leg of its long journey to rendezvous with a comet. Rosetta was launched back in 2004 with the goal of going after the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The ultimate goal here is to study the comet for two years, after which, Rosetta will land a probe on the comet surface itself.
Unlike other spacecrafts, Rosetta is powered by huge solar panels, which are great to gain energy from direct sunlight. To conserve energy, the European Space Agency chose to put Rosetta in sleep mode back in 2011. However, only the craft's computers and heaters have remained awake up to this point.
On Monday at around 10:00 GMT, an alarm clock inside Rosetta will begin a sequence of events that are aimed at bringing all systems online. The first step will be to warm up Rosetta's startrackers, which will take 6 hours, according to the ESA. Next, the thrusters will come online, followed by the startrackers, and then Rosetta will begin preparations to point itself in Earth's direction. From there, the craft will switch on its transmitter to begin communication with he European Space Agency once more.
Due to Rosetta's long distance away from Earth, it would likely take 45 minutes before the first signal reaches the station on the ground. The ESA expects the signal to hit home at between 17:30 GMT and 18:30 GMT.
"It's the first time we've made a rendezvous with a comet -- that's never been done before -- and it's going to be the first time we've escorted a comet past its closest approach to the Sun," Matt Taylor, the ESA's project scientist, told CNN.
"With these firsts it will enable us to make a quantum leap in our understanding of comets -- where they come from, their consistencies.
"Previous missions have only flown past comets at high speed. Rosetta will get within 5km (3.1 miles) when we deploy the lander and will be in pace with the comet -- we will be really up close and personal with it," he said.
Hopefully Rosetta's landing on a comet will be a success, as it would help us to learn more about comets as they have remained largely unchanged since the beginning of the universe.
