Rosetta select five possible landing spots … – RTVE

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The Rosetta probe the European Space Agency (ESA) has identified five places to land on the comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko the month of November which will be the first landing on a comet in history.

Rosetta, which reached its orbit on August 6, analyzed during these two weeks the area to find the most appropriate place for both the satellite itself to the Philae module will be shipped and which pose in the comet.

“The five shortlisted sites offer better able to land and to analyze the composition, internal structure and activity of comet with the ten experiments Philae” explains Jean-Pierre Bibring, one of the scientists who worked on the lander, in a note of the ESA.

Rosetta is a mission of the European Space Agency in which the Member States participate and NASA. It will be the first in history to meet with a comet, accompany him on his orbit around the sun, and pose a module on its surface.

Mission to decipher the history of the Solar System

explains ESA, Comets are “time capsules” that still contain materials of the time in which the sun and planets were formed . “By studying the gas, dust, and structure of the nucleus of the comet organic materials, both remotely and on its surface, the Rosetta mission could be key to unlocking the history and development” of the Solar System, and to find answers on the origin of water on Earth, and perhaps even life. “

The satellite will observe how the comet evolves with increasing temperature, studying how the coma develops (the atmosphere around the nucleus) and how its surface is altered.

The module Philae will additional data on the surface. Both satellite and module work together in CONSERT experiment,” sending and detecting radio waves through the interior of icy rock to study its internal structure. “

It is expected that the module Philae landing on the comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko in mid-November, when this is 450 million kilometers from the Sun. This comet 4 km across , take six and a half years to complete one orbit around the Sun.

Venues with flat floor and sunlight

To choose the place to land the module, the Rosetta probe has analyzed the surface at a distance of 100 miles from the comet. “It’s the first time in history that places are assessed to land a comet,” says Stephan Ulamec responsible Landing Module for DLR.

“Places shortlisted are viable from a Technically, based on preliminary analysis of flight dynamics and other factors such as, for example, that they all provide at least six hours of sunlight during each rotation of the comet and submit a flat floor, “adds Ulamec.

Now, a detailed discussion of each of the five points study will be conducted while the Rosetta probe is about 50 kilometers from the comet. On September 14 they will be sorted in order of preference to choose the primary site and the secondary. The satellite will then approach about 20-30 miles to decide which one will eventually use.

The final date and the landing will be announced on 12 October and the final decision will be made two days after the ESA .