The Rosetta Comet Chaser has finally awoken to carry out it's mission: to land on a comet. The signal received from the comet was confirmed at 18:17 GMT in Darmstadt Germany. The spacecraft has spent the past 31 months in hibernation as it made it's way towards the selected comet, Comet 67P. The engineers in charge are now prepping for the landing in which they plan to put a robotic lander, Philae, on the surface of the 4.5 km comet by November. The control room was tense and nervous as their one chance window of opportunity brought back successful results. The signal that Rosetta sent made sure it's systems were operational. A full check will be conducted in the coming days to ensure no troubles will occur.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25814454
No comments:
Post a Comment