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Space Topics

Rosetta


Rosetta approaches Steins
Rosetta will soon encounter asteroid 2867 Steins, its first scientific target, on September 5, 2008. Visit the Planetary Society Weblog for updates.


The European Space Agency's Rosetta is the first mission to attempt orbiting a comet and delivering a lander to its surface. One of the most ambitious and complex robotic space projects ever undertaken, the billion dollar mission was launched on March 2, 2004 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. It is currently on a 4.4-billion-mile journey to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it is expected to arrive in May 2014.

Once there, the truck-size Rosetta will spend six months mapping and observing Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is only 4 kilometers/2.5 miles in diameter. Then, the spacecraft will release Philae, the lander, to the core for the first-ever direct sampling of a comet's nucleus. Rosetta will continue to make observations from as close as 2 kilometers/1.2 miles. Together with the lander, Rosetta will conduct a total of 21 experiments that will characterize the comet's dynamic properties and surface morphology, as well as determine physical properties of the surface and subsurface, and the chemical, mineralogical, and isotopic compositions. From November 2014 to December 2015, Rosetta will continue, if all goes as planned, escorting the comet -- with the lander riding along atop it like a cowboy on a horse -- into the sunset.

Named after the famous Rosetta stone that led to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics, scientists hope the new Rosetta will unlock the mysteries of how the solar system evolved since comets provide the earliest record of planetary materials in a pristine form.

Rosetta Facts
Launch date: March 2, 2004 07:17 UT
Asteroid 2867 Steins flyby: September 5, 2008
Earth flyby #3: November 13, 2009
Asteroid 21 Lutetia flyby: July 10, 2010
Arrival at Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: May 2014
End of nominal mission: December 2015