The Rosetta spacecraft recently woke from a long hibernation, and is headed for a comet, now coming into range. Once there, the European spacecraft will launch a small probe that will land on the surface of a comet for the first time in history.
Rosetta has spent a decade chasing after comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft, designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) launched into space aboard an Ariane 5 rocket on 5 March 2004.
New pictures from Rosetta have recently been returned from the craft after it awoke from a long hibernation.
"The two images were taken at a distance of about three million miles... and required a series of exposures of 60 to 300 seconds, taken with the wide-angle and narrow-angle camera," NASA engineers reported.
Philae, a robotic lander attached to the craft, will come down on the surface of the comet on 11 November. Once there, drills and screws will attach the lander to the core of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The lander was recently brought back to full operations in order to prepare for the landing. The spacecraft has successfully established communications with ground controllers on Earth.
The large spacecraft was re-activated by a pre-set "alarm clock" that turned systems back on at the correct time. Philae was sent a wake-up call just a week before the command was executed at 2 a.m. EDT on 28 March.
Rosetta and Philae will travel with the comet as it makes its way around the Sun. This will provide the human race with our first-ever, close-up look at what happens to a comet during its orbit.
August and September will be spent examining the comet for small-scale surface features, as well as signs of geological activity.
"Landing on the surface is the cherry on the icing on the cake for the Rosetta mission on top of all the great science that will be done by the orbiter in 2014 and 2015. A good chunk of this year will be spent identifying where we will land, but also taking vital measurements of the comet before it becomes highly active. No one has ever attempted this before and we are very excited about the challenge," Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, said.
Batteries aboard the Philae lander will only guarantee 64 hours of operation, so mission managers will need to act quickly. The lander will drill almost ten inches into the comet, and analyze the material it finds. That data will be sent to Rosetta, and relayed back to Earth. Solar cells aboard the craft may extend the mission, but debris and dust on the cells could hamper production of electricity.
After launch, the spacecraft examined asteroids near our home planet, in order to test equipment and learn more about these dangers from outer space.
