Rosetta Mission - Landing a Spacecraft on a Comet.

In case you all aren't aware, on Wednesday (12th Nov), ESA will be attempting to land a spacecraft onto a comet about 1 billion kilometres away from Earth. It was first planned in 1993, launched 10 years ago, and is the first ever attempt to land on a comet. The Rosetta spacecraft is already in orbit around the comet, and on Wednesday, will release a probe (called 'Philae') to touch down on the comet's surface, around 12:00 to 15:30.

This kind of mission doesn't happen very often, so make sure to pass on the news on and tell people about it. There's already a huge amount of information online but it doesn't pass into the public news too easily! This should be enough information for now, enjoy!


Live Stream of Comet Landing (on Wednesday):

http://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding


7 Minute PR film about the mission:

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Vid...ition_the_film


BBC article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29937050


Rosetta FAQ's:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Sp...sked_questions


Image of the Comet's surface taken by Rosetta:

http://img.new.livestream.com/events...7e_640x640.jpg

Bit frivolous, about a serious mission..
http://news.sky.com/video/1371598/go...m-captain-kirk

Seriously, I wish the mission success.

News of whether it has been successful is expected at around 4pm.

I liked the comment on Sky News this morning when the reporter asked one of the mission specialists to explain in laymens terms, his answer 'it's like a fly trying to land on a bullet' :lmao:


Tiff xxx

Fantastic piece of engineering and science to be able to do this...and with technology thats now 10 years out of date. Will know soon if its success or not.

Landing "window" is from 1540 GMT to 1620 GMT.
Requires a lot of science and skill. And unfortunately, a lot of luck.

The comet is at the moment 500 million km from Earth. So it will take 28 minutes for the radio signal to reach us when it does land.

Just for comparison, time it takes light (or a radio signal)to reach us in minutes from a few other objects,
Sun 8.3,
Moon 1.3
Mercury Max 11.56 Min 5.07
Venus Max 14.30 Min 2.33
Mars Max 20.96 Min 4.32
Jupiter Max 51.56 Min 34.93
Saturn Max 87.66 Min 71.02
Uranus Max 168.16 Min 151.53
Neptune Max 258.32 Min 241.68

Unconfirmed reports it is down safely...

Unknown at present how well it is functioning, but history has been made, because the landing has been made and signal received.

Science can put a spacecraft on a comet.
Science can put a man on the moon.
Ruhama can't even put a man on themselves.

All being controlled remotely from Germany.

Bit like the Irish economy.