European spacecraft begins descending to comet 67P
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...-descending-to-comet-67p/ar-AA7HXAy?ocid=iehp
The European Space Agency's unmanned Rosetta probe successfully released a lander toward the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday, putting it on its final seven-hour journey to a historic rendezvous with the fast-moving lump of dust and ice.
The audacious landing attempt is the climax of a decade-long mission to study the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) wide comet. It is also the end of a 6.4 billion-kilometer (4 billion-mile) journey on which Rosetta carried its sidekick lander Philae piggyback.
"It's on its own now," said Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center. "We'll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope."
If successful, it will be the first time that a spacecraft has landed on a comet. Confirmation of a landing should reach Earth by about 1603 GMT (11:03 a.m. EST).
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...-descending-to-comet-67p/ar-AA7HXAy?ocid=iehp
The European Space Agency's unmanned Rosetta probe successfully released a lander toward the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday, putting it on its final seven-hour journey to a historic rendezvous with the fast-moving lump of dust and ice.
The audacious landing attempt is the climax of a decade-long mission to study the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) wide comet. It is also the end of a 6.4 billion-kilometer (4 billion-mile) journey on which Rosetta carried its sidekick lander Philae piggyback.
"It's on its own now," said Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center. "We'll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope."
If successful, it will be the first time that a spacecraft has landed on a comet. Confirmation of a landing should reach Earth by about 1603 GMT (11:03 a.m. EST).
