Space Missions Codexery

Rosetta and Philae

First spacecraft to orbit and land on a comet.

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On 12 November 2014, the Philae lander module achieved the first-ever touchdown on a comet.[1] Rosetta's mission concluded on 30 September 2016 with a controlled hard landing in the Ma'at region of the comet.[1]

Key facts and history

The probe was named after the Rosetta Stone, and the lander after the Philae obelisk.[2][3] Philae detached from Rosetta on 12 November 2014 and landed after bouncing twice.[4] Communications with Philae were briefly restored in June and July 2015.[1] Rosetta's transmitter to Philae was turned off on 27 July 2016.[1]

The orbiter's final descent targeted a site near active pits in the Ma'at region.[5] Impact speed was 3.2 km/h, and the touchdown location was named Sais.[6] An Ariane 5 rocket lifted Rosetta off from the Guiana Space Centre.[7] Because Philae came to rest in a location that was shadowed, its battery was depleted after three days.[8][9]

What the cited sources add

The BBC News account states that asteroid Lutetia is covered in a dusty debris blanket at least 600 m deep.[10] The same source notes that Rosetta's flyby of Lutetia occurred 454 million km from Earth.[10] A Southwest Research Institute press release confirms that the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph was built and operated by SwRI for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[11] That release also states that Airbus Defense and Space built the Rosetta spacecraft.[11]

The CONSERT instrument description explains that its components were placed on both the orbiter and the Philae lander.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Rosetta's Frequently Asked Questions", European Space Agency; Beatty, "Philae Lands on Its Comet – Three Times!", Sky & Telescope, 12 November 2014; Beatty, "Philae Wins Race to Return Comet Findings", Sky & Telescope, 15 November 2014; Mignone, "Farewell, silent Philae", European Space Agency, 26 July 2016; Aron, "Rosetta lands on 67P in grand finale to two year comet mission", 30 September 2016; Gannon, "Goodbye, Rosetta! Spacecraft Crash-Lands on Comet in Epic Mission Finale", Space.com, 30 September 2016 (original not read by en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Rosetta", Naming Rosetta – An interview with Eberhard Grün (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sharp, "Rosetta Spacecraft: To Catch a Comet", Space.com, 15 January 2014; "Unlocking the secrets of the universe: Rosetta lander named Philae", European Space Agency, 5 February 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Knapton, "Rosetta mission: broken thrusters mean probe could bounce off comet into space", The Daily Telegraph, 12 November 2014; Beatty, "Philae Lands on Its Comet – Three Times!", Sky & Telescope, 12 November 2014; Withnall, "Philae lander 'bounced twice' on comet but is now stable, Rosetta mission scientists confirm", The Independent, 13 November 2014; "Rosetta camera captures Philae's descent to the comet", Spaceflight Now, 13 November 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mission complete: Rosetta's journey ends in daring descent to comet", European Space Agency, 30 September 2016; Cowen, "Rosetta Spacecraft Death-Dives into Comet Companion—On Purpose", Eos, 30 September 2016; Clark, "Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown", Spaceflight Now, 30 September 2016; Gibney, "Mission accomplished: Rosetta crashes into comet", Nature, 30 September 2016, p. 13–14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mission complete: Rosetta's journey ends in daring descent to comet", European Space Agency, 30 September 2016; Cowen, "Rosetta Spacecraft Death-Dives into Comet Companion—On Purpose", Eos, 30 September 2016; "Screenshot of the last packet...", Twitter.com, 30 September 2016; Gannon, "Goodbye, Rosetta! Spacecraft Crash-Lands on Comet in Epic Mission Finale", Space.com, 30 September 2016; Gibney, "Mission accomplished: Rosetta crashes into comet", Nature, 30 September 2016, p. 13–14; Gibney, "Mission accomplished: Rosetta crashes i en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Keller, "Beautiful new images from Rosetta's approach to Mars: OSIRIS Update", European Space Agency, 25 February 2007; Glassmeier, "The Rosetta Mission: Flying Towards the Origin of the Solar System", Space Science Reviews, February 2007, p. 1–21; Amos, "Asteroid Lutetia has thick blanket of debris", BBC News, 4 October 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Philae found!", European Space Agency, 5 September 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Rosetta (spacecraft)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Philae found!", European Space Agency, 5 September 2016; Beatty, "Philae Wins Race to Return Comet Findings", Sky & Telescope, 15 November 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Amos, "Asteroid Lutetia has thick blanket of debris", BBC News, 4 October 2010. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  11. "Rosetta-Alice spectrograph to begin first-ever close up ultraviolet studies of comet surface and atmosphere", Southwest Research Institute, 10 June 2014. facts only, no text reused. swri.org
  12. "CONSERT — COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio-wave Transmission", MPS-Beteiligungen an der Mission Rosetta. facts only, no text reused. mps.mpg.de

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Rosetta (spacecraft) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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