This footage is from 20 January 2014, when ESAâs Rosetta spacecraft awoke from deep space hibernation, more than 800 million kilometres from Earth. After spending 31 months in a power-saving sleep mode to conserve energy while travelling through the cold, outer regions of the Solar System, Rosetta successfully reactivated and sent a signal back to Earth â a simple âHello, world!â that marked the beginning of one of the most ambitious space missions in history. Rosetta went on to become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet (67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko), orbit it, and deploy a lander, Philae, to its surface.
Three years after the Rosetta mission officially ended in 2016, scientists met at ESAâs ESTEC facility in The Netherlands to discuss the latest findings at the final Science Working Team (SWT) meeting.
From the launch in 2004, to its arrival at comet 67P in 2014, Rosetta has been an emotional and inspiring mission. Its findings have furthered our understanding of comets and changed our perceptions of how the Solar System formed.
The mission produced an enormous amount of data which will keep many scientists busy for years. The OSIRIS camera, for example, took 100 000 images. These are archived – with the analysis of images recently providing further insight into the cometâs activity.
Rosettaâs legacy of cometary science and data is not just continuing to produce more work, however, itâs also inspiring the next generation of scientists. Some began working on Rosetta as students and are now taking their experience forward onto ESAâs future Comet Interceptor mission.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
This short movie shares an impression of some of the scientific highlights from Rosetta’s mission at Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko, as told through the voices of scientists working with Rosetta’s vast dataset, two years after the mission ended.
Rosetta launched in 2004 and travelled for ten years to its destination before deploying the lander Philae to the comet’s surface. Following the comet along its orbit around the Sun, Rosetta studied the comet’s surface changes, its dusty, gassy environment and its interaction with the solar wind. Even though scientific operations concluded in September 2016 with Rosetta’s own descent to the comet’s surface, analysis of the mission’s data will continue for decades.
Credits: This is an ESA Web TV production. The video contains artist impressions of the spacecraft (credit: ESA/ATG medialab) and animations/infographics by ESA. Images of the comet are from Rosetta’s OSIRIS and NAVCAM cameras, as well as Philae’s CIVA camera (credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA â CC BY SA 4.0; ESA/Rosetta/NavCam â CC BY-SA IGO 3.0; ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA). Ground-based images were provided by Colin Snodgrass/Alan Fitzsimmons/Liverpool Telescope. The plasma visualisation is based on modelling and simulation by Technische UniversitĂ€t Braunschweig and Deutsches Zentrum fĂŒr Luft- und Raumfahrt, and visualised by Zuse-Institut Berlin. The animation of Philae’s flight across the surface is based on data from Philae’s ROMAP, RPC-MAG, OSIRIS, ROLIS, CIVA CONSERT, SESAME and MUPUS instrument teams, the Lander Control Centre at DLR and the Science Operation and Navigation Center at CNES.
ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out http://www.esa.int/ESA to get up to speed on everything space related.
In just a few days’ time ESA’s Rosetta mission is going to come to a close in a most extraordinary fashion, because the spacecraft is going to slowly, and deliberately crash-land into the comet that it has been orbiting for the past two years.
Euronews is with the team as they prepare for this dramatic finale.
En pocos dĂas, la misiĂłn Rosetta de la Agencia Espacial Europea (ESA) tocarĂĄ a su fin. Y lo harĂĄ de la forma mĂĄs extraordinaria, porque la nave espacial irĂĄ a chocar, lenta y deliberadamente, contra el cometa alrededor del cual ha estado orbitando durante los Ășltimos dos años. Nos reunimos con el equipo mientras preparan este dramĂĄtico final.
15 months after Philae made its historic landing on a comet, its legacy is enormous even if Rosettaâs lander is facing eternal hibernation.
Mission teams are now looking ahead to the grand finale: making a controlled impact of the Rosetta orbiter on the comet next September.Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko on 6 August 2014 and Philae was delivered to the surface on 12 November. After touching down Philae bounced several times and completed 80% of its planned first science sequence before falling into hibernation.Â
A contact was made with the lander on 13 June and intermittent contacts were made up to 9 July. However the results of Philae mission are unique and complement all the science harvested by the orbiter Rosetta who is continuing its quest before being sent directly to the surface of 69P late September.
Itâs been an extraordinary year for the Rosetta comet mission since Philae landed on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014.
Continual data from the orbiter, together with information collected over several days from the lander, is providing a comprehensive picture of a remnant from our Solar System.
This film covers the most recent science news from the Rosetta mission, as well as selected scientific highlights from the last year. It includes the cometâs unusual surface terrace structure, its formation from two colliding objects producing the unusual rubber duck shape, how water is transported from inside the comet towards the surface, and the surprising detection of molecular oxygen – familiar on Earth but not on a comet.
The Rosetta spacecraft is still orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko while it now approaches the Sun. Six months ago Rosetta made history by delivering its Philae lander onto a cometâs surface – something no other space mission has done before.
This video covers the missionâs highlights so far: from its launch in 2004; its journey across the solar system and waking up after deep space hibernation ten years later, its arrival at the selection of a landing site and Philaeâs unexpected multiple landings on the comet. It also reviews what we have learnt about the comet to this point.
Credit: ESA, with footage by DLR, licenced under CC-BY 3.0 DE
Rosetta and Philae were ready for their biggest challenge yet: landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. As Rosetta bid her lander farewell and sent him to the comet’s surface, the whole world looked on, anxious to see what would happen next…
The Philae lander may be in hibernation mode on the surface of a comet, but it’s still very much alive in the hearts of the Comet Hunters, the team who helped Rosetta become the most famous space mission since the Moon landings. In this special edition of Euronews Space we have an extended episode of our Comet Hunters series, filmed during and after the comet landing at ESA’s base in Darmstadt and at the DLR’s Philae control room in Köln.
MercoledĂŹ 12 novembre, il D-Day per Rosetta e Philae: un giorno che i cacciatori di comete non dimenticheranno mai.
Matt Taylor, scienziato del progetto Rosetta, ESA: “Ieri iero rilassato, ora invece c’Ăš questo aumento esponenziale di stress ed eccitazione. Sono al massimo adesso”. “Questa Ăš la mia previsione per oggi, ecco quanto mi sento sicuro”, dice Taylor mostrando un tatuaggio del lander sulla gamba.
Paolo Ferri, direttore della missione Rosetta, ESA: “Sono estremamente stressato, la notte non Ăš trascorsa tranquillamente come speravo. Le attivitĂ di preparazione del lander hanno richiesto molto piĂč tempo, abbiamo dovuto rifare delle cose”.
Ma poi la buona notizia Ăš arrivata, Rosetta ha ricevuto un segnale da Philae, e poi, dopo alcune ore di tensione, la missione Ăš compiuta. Matt Taylor, scienziato del progetto Rosetta, ESA: “Siamo atterrati su una cometa!”
Celebrating the landing of Rosettaâs Philae lander on 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko at ESAâs technical heart. Along with the main Rosetta landing event taking place at ESA’s ESOC control centre, many other events took place all across Europe. More than a quarter of a century in the making, the Rosetta comet-chaser had been designed, planned and finally tested at ESTEC – ESA’s largest establishment, based in Noordwijk, the Netherlands – in advance of its 2004 launch.
Update on the Rosetta mission, including status of the Philae lander.
Hosted by Emily Baldwin – ESA Science Editor, with:
Andrea Accomazzo – ESA Rosetta Flight Director, ESOC
Stephan Ulamec – Philae Lander Manager, DLR
Matt Taylor – Rosetta Project Scientist, ESA
Philippe Gaudon – CNES Rosetta Project Manager, SONC
Holger Sierks – PI for OSIRIS, Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research
Valentina Lommatsch – DLR-Lander Control Center, mission team
Jeff Grossman – OSIRIS-REx Program Scientist, NASA
Gordon Johnston – OSIRIS-REx Program Scientist, NASA
Highlights from coverage of ESA’s Rosetta mission soft-landing its Philae probe on a comet, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved. Including the presentation of the first ROLIS image sent back by Philae as the lander descended to the surface of the comet.
After a tense wait during the seven-hour descent to the surface of Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko, the signal confirming the successful touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT (17:03 CET).
Highlights from coverage of ESA’s Rosetta mission soft-landing its Philae probe on a comet, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved.
After a tense wait during the seven-hour descent to the surface of Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko, the signal confirming the successful touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT (17:03 CET).
Scene inside Mission Control as the team regained contact with Rosetta as expected after separation, and with Philae that is descending onto the surface of Comet 67P/C-G.
The first of a trio of music videos released by ESA to celebrate the first ever attempted soft landing on a comet by ESA’s Rosetta mission.
Vangelis, the world-renowned musician, has composed this piece of music specially for ESA and inspired by the Rosetta mission. Vangelis’s music is often linked to themes of science, history and exploration, and he is best known for his Academy Awardâwinning score for the film Chariots of Fire, composing scores for the films Antarctica, Blade Runner, 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Alexander, and the use of his music in the documentary series Cosmos, by Carl Sagan.
Vangelis said: “Mythology, science and space exploration are subjects that have fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always connected somehow with the music I write.”
Video copyright: ESA/Vangelis Original music: Vangelis
William Shatner, known to millions around the world as Capt. James T. Kirk from the original Star Trek series, sent this message to ESA’s Rosetta team today to wish them good luck for tomorrow’s Philae landing.
Rosettaâs deployment of Philae to land on Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko.
The animation begins with Philae still on Rosetta, which will come to within about 22.5 km of the centre of the nucleus to release the lander on 12 November 2014.
The animation then shows Philae being ejected by Rosetta and deploying its own three legs, and follows the landerâs descent until it reaches the target site on the comet about seven hours later.
The animation is speeded up, but the comet rotation is true: in the time it takes for Philae to descend, the nucleus has rotated by more than 180Âș (the cometâs rotation period is 12.4 hours).
The final steps of Philaeâs descent towards the comet are shown as seen by a hypothetical observer close to the landing site on the comet.
Acknowledgement: The background image of the sequence showing Philae closing in on the landing site was taken by Rosettaâs OSIRIS narrow-angle camera (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) on 14 September 2014 from a distance of about 30 km.
Philae was provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.
Rosettaâs deployment of Philae to land on Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko.
The animation begins with Philae still on Rosetta, which will come to within about 22.5 km of the centre of the nucleus to release the lander on 12 November 2014.
The animation then shows Philae being ejected by Rosetta and deploying its own three legs, and follows the landerâs descent until it reaches the target site on the comet about seven hours later.
The animation is speeded up, but the comet rotation is true: in the time it takes for Philae to descend, the nucleus has rotated by more than 180Âș (the cometâs rotation period is 12.4 hours).
The final steps of Philaeâs descent towards the comet are shown as seen by a hypothetical observer close to the landing site on the comet.
Finally, the animation shows Philae landing on the comet.
Because of the cometâs extremely low gravity, landing gear will absorb the small forces of landing while ice screws in the probeâs feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction. Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. The animation shows a number of the science instruments in action on the surface.
Acknowledgement: The background image of the sequence showing Philae closing in on the landing site was taken by Rosettaâs OSIRIS narrow-angle camera (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) on 14 September 2014 from a distance of about 30 km.
Philae was provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.
Media and interested members of the public joined Rosetta mission experts online on Friday, 7 November for a briefing ahead of the historic comet landing on 12 November.
Programme:
Introduction: Emily Baldwin, ESA space science editor
Overview of media events: Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin, Head of ESOC communication office
Science from Rosetta so far: Matt Taylor, ESA Rosetta project scientist
Spacecraft status and operations timeline: Andrea Accomazzo, ESA Rosetta flight director
Key messages: Fred Jansen, ESA Rosetta mission manager
Q&A: all
The final steps of Philaeâs descent towards Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko on 12 November 2014, as seen by a hypothetical observer close to the landing site on the comet.
The background image was taken by Rosettaâs OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 14 September 2014 from a distance of about 30 km.
Philae was provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst performs a demonstration of how ESAâs Rosetta mission will attempt to put a lander, called âPhilaeâ on the surface of comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko.
Alexander narrates the story of the Rosetta mission and performs a demonstration that visualises the difficulties of landing on an object that has little gravitational pull. Using the weightless environment of the Space Station, Alexander attempts to land âPhilaeâ (an ear plug) onto the surface of the âcometâ (an inactive SPHERES robot) with increasing levels of difficulty: a rotating comet that is not moving to one that is both rotating and moving.
This video is one of the six experiments and demonstrations in the Flying Classroom, Alexander will use small items to demonstrate several principles of physics in microgravity to students aged 10â17 years.
The Rosetta missionâs lander, Philae, will be deployed on 12 November at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET from a distance of 22.5 km from the centre of the comet. It will land about seven hours later, with confirmation expected to arrive at Earth at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET.
Rosetta will release its Philae lander when approximately 22 kilometres from the centre of the comet. A signal confirming the separation will arrive at ground stations on Earth 28 minutes and 20 seconds later while the landerâs descent to the surface will take seven hours. On the way down, Philae will take a series of images and onboard instruments will sample the dust, gas and plasma close to the cometâs surface and measure any magnetic field.
Philaeâs three lander legs will absorb the momentum of impact and use it to drive an ice screw in each foot into the surface. At the same time two harpoons will fire to lock the probe onto the surface and a small thruster on top will counteract the impulse. Once anchored to the nucleus, Philae will begin its primary science mission, based on its initial battery lifetime of 64 hours.
The SESAME experiment – which contains three instruments – includes one called CASSE, located in the landerâs feet. Harald KRUEGER, Principal Investigator of Rosettaâs SESAME experiment, explains how CASSE will use acoustic waves to determine properties of the cometâs soil.
Within hours of landing, we also hope to see the first ever images of a comet from its surface.
After a ten-year journey, Rosetta and Philae had finally reached their destination, Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko. Rosetta spent many weeks studying the comet, sending lots of information back to Earth. But where was Philae going to land? Eventually the scientists on Earth found the best place on the comet for Philae to land. Soon it was time to make the final preparations for Philae’s great adventure. Both spacecraft couldn’t wait any longer. The whole world would be watching as Rosetta and Philae prepared for their biggest challenge yet…
Nach einer 10-jĂ€hrigen Reise haben Rosetta und Philae endlich ihr Ziel erreicht. Den Kometen 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta verbrachte mehrere Wochen damit, die OberflĂ€che des Kometen zu studieren und schickte viele Informationen zurĂŒck zur Erde. Aber wo wĂŒrde Philae wohl landen können? Die Wissenschaftler ĂŒberlegten lang und intensiv. Letztendlich fanden sie die beste Landestelle fĂŒr Philae. Beide Raumsonden konnten es nicht mehr erwarten. Die ganze Welt wĂŒrde zusehen, wenn sich Rosetta und Philae fĂŒr ihre bisher gröĂte Herausfordung bereit machen…
Animation showing Rosettaâs orbit in the lead up to, during and after lander separation.
The animation begins on 1 October 2014, when Rosetta is orbiting about 19 km from Comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko (all distances refer to the cometâs centre). The animation shows the transition to the close 10 km orbit by mid-October, and then the steps taken to move onto the pre-separation trajectory.
On the day of landing, 12 November, Rosetta makes a further manoeuvre 2â3 hours before separation to move to 22.5 km from the comet centre to deploy the lander, Philae. While Philae descends to the surface over a period of seven hours, Rosetta makes another manoeuvre to maintain visibility with the lander. A series of ‘relay phase’ manoeuvres then move Rosetta out to a distance of about 50 km, before moving first to a 30 km orbit and later to an orbit at about 20 km by early December.
The speed of the animation slows during the separation and lander phase to better highlight these events. The comet shape and rate of rotation is real â the comet rotates with a period of about 12.4 hours.
Annotated version of the Philaeâs mission at comet 67P animation.
The animation begins with the deployment of Philae from Rosetta at comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko in November 2014. It will take several hours for it to reach the surface. Because of the cometâs extremely low gravity, landing gear will absorb the small forces of landing while ice screws in the probeâs feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction.
Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. The animation shows a number of the science instruments in action on the surface.
Rosettaâs Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.
Join us to talk about the possible landing sites on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for Rosetta’s lander Philae.
The Hangout will also include a live draw for participants who took part in our ‘Rosetta, are we there yet?’ photo contest â watch to see if you win ESA swag!
Our hosts will be joined by:
Fred Jansen – Rosetta Mission Manager and/or Matt Taylor – Rosetta Project Scientist [TBC]
Andrea Accomazzo – Rosetta Flight Director
Barbara Cozzoni and/or Valentina Samodelov â Philae Operations Engineer, +DLR, German Aerospace Center [TBC]
Send us your questions before or during the hangout by posting a comment on this event – or on Twitter using #AskRosetta
Extended version of Philae touchdown animation to include visualisations of some of the science experiments on the lander.
The animation begins with the deployment of Philae from Rosetta at comet 67P/ChuryumovâGerasimenko in November 2014. Rosetta will come to within about 10 km of the nucleus to deploy Philae, which will take several hours to reach the surface. Because of the cometâs extremely low gravity, landing gear will absorb the small forces of landing while ice screws in the probeâs feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction. Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. The animation then shows five of Philaeâs 10 instruments in action: CIVA, ROLIS, SD2, MUPUS and APXS.
Rosettaâs Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.
Long, long ago men and women on Earth gazed in wonder at comets that appeared in the sky. What where these mysterious objects? Rosetta and Philae learn about the history of comets from their grandfather, Giotto.
This short animation explains the relative sizes of the Rosetta spacecraft and comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Rosetta is 32 m from tip to tip of the solar wings. Assuming the comet measures about 4 km across, that’s 125 times the width of Rosetta.
Unlike typical artist’s impressions, this image is scaled to convey the vast difference in size between Rosetta and the comet, even when the spacecraft is in a close 10 km orbit, as depicted here.
Rosetta arrives at the comet at an altitude of 100 km in the first week of August, and will move progressively closer over the following two months, with the intention to orbit at an altitude of just 10 km, depending on the comet’s activity. For Philae’s deployment in November, Rosetta will come to within a few kilometres of the surface.
The comet depicted in this animation is an artist’s impression.
After a 10-year journey, Rosetta and Philae are impatient to arrive at their destination!
In July 2014, the public were invited to join the “Rosetta, are we there yet?” campaign, a photo contest to support the last leg of the spacecraft’s epic 10-year voyage to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Space missions have been chasing comets since the launch of the Giotto spacecraft in 1985. NASA’s Stardust mission flew through a comet’s tail in 2006 and brought a sample of dust back to Earth. Glycene was found in this sample, one of the four basic amino acids in our DNA. We can make a fake comet on Earth using a recipe of water ice, liquid nitrogen and fine carbon particles. By testing the fake comet and simulating the conditions of space, this will help scientists interpret data from ESA’s latest comet chaser – Rosetta. With ESA’s comet chaser Rosetta expectations are great : for the first time a probe will be flying alongside a comet and even placing a lander on its surface.
Visualisation of the deployment of the Philae lander from Rosetta at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. Rosetta will come to within 2.5 km of the comet’s surface to deploy Philae, which will then take around 2 hours to reach the surface. Because of the comet’s extremely low gravity, a landing gear will absorb the small forces occurring during landing while ice screws in the probe’s feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction. Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. Then it will use solar cells to recharge and attempt to operate for several further weeks to months, depending on the activity of the comet and how quickly the solar cells are covered in dust.
This animation tracks Rosetta’s journey through the Solar System, using gravity slingshots from Earth and Mars to reach its final destination: Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta made three flybys of Earth, on 4 March 2005, 13 November 2007 and 13 November 2009, and one of Mars, on 25 February 2007. Rosetta has also visited two asteroids, taking extensive close-up images of 2867 Steins on 5 September 2008 and 21 Lutetia on 10 July 2010. Once the spacecraft is woken up from deep space hibernation on 20 January 2014, it will head for rendezvous with the comet in May. In November the Philae probe will be deployed to the comet surface. Rosetta will follow the comet to its closest distance to the Sun on 13 August 2015 and as it moves back towards the outer Solar System. The nominal mission end is December 2015.
Credits: ESA
Comets are primeval leftovers from the origins of the Solar System. To fully understand these ancient objects and perhaps the origins of life on Earth, ESA’s Rosetta mission will rendezvous with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. In November of that year, Rosetta’s Philae lander will touchdown on the comet and thoroughly investigate its composition.
