Rosetta Is Awake
ESA’s Rosetta Wakes Up From Hibernation
“It was a fairy-tale ending to a tense chapter in the story of the Rosetta space mission this evening as ESA heard from its distant spacecraft for the first time in 31 months. Rosetta is chasing down Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will become the first space mission to rendezvous with a comet, the first to attempt a landing on a comet’s surface, and the first to follow a comet as it swings around the Sun.”
This is one of the most exciting missions going: orbiting a comet; a landing on a comet nucleus; sampling and analysis of nucleus material; and rounding the Sun with the comet. Kudos to ESA for such a mission profile, and here’s hoping it all goes according to plan.
Science has the best toys.
Agree! following it around the sun could be really interesting, and can’t wait to hear how the landing goes!
If the definition of “rendezvous” is “meeting”, wouldn’t the Stardust mission have been the first to “rendezvous” with a comet. Yes, it was a fly-by…but it still qualifies as a rendezvous…yes?
Woops…forgot about Giotto. So that makes both Giotto and Stardust as antecedents to Rosetta in terms of a comet “rendezvous”.
I was 32 a young professional. A construction project manager. What year was it 1987? No 2061? Yes yes, that’s right commercial Space was going strong. Fusion Spaceships, diamonds in the sky. I was there with Mr.Floyd I think? I don’t recall for sure, it’s like a dream. Yes I was on the Universe, a mighty spaceship. We had been out and about exploring this wondrous famous rock. But just as we were approaching the sun we had a call, a distress call, the Galaxy had crashed, they needed help! The Captain ordered us aboard. The surface of Haley was alive!! Vapor volcanoes everywhere. It was so beautiful!!! The caption maneuvered the mighty ship, we floated throw the vapor, he lit the mighty engine, I remember!!
What happened? I’m awake, it is dark. There is no colony on the moon??? Where are the fusion Spaceships?? I grow old, My body aches, I’m still on earth!! Why? Let me look at my hand computer, my cell, NASA watch, Rosetta is Awake, a mission to a comet, How cool!!
I can still Dream
:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w…
Nasa would have had a second lander on this mission, but they canceled it. Sorry for them.( http://articles.adsabs.harv… )