The Rosetta probe, which after more than 10 years of space travel achieved in August of 2014 be placed in the orbit of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, will be completed this Friday its historic mission of poking around on the origins of life with a controlled descent onto the surface of the star, where it will turn off forever, in a move that will be broadcast live on the Internet.
“Is currently in orbit and what they are going to do (the scientists of the European Space Agency, ESA) is a descent on the surface. As you descend, it will transmit to Earth the data you will be collecting,” he said in dialogue with Telam, the astronomer, an expert on probes, César Bertucci, and pointed out that “the closer the comet, are going to be taking information more difficult to obtain”.
“It’s the same thing that we’re going to do with (the probe NASA) Cassini on 15 September 2017 against Saturn”, said the scientist working on that project of NASA, and said that “in this maneuver maximizás the information that you can get.”
The preparations for the descent-or “maneuver collision”, as described in the ESA – will begin this evening when the ship, which is at a distance of 19 kilometers from the surface, is placed in the indicated position to start their descent tomorrow, during a window of 20 minutes at around 7.40 Argentina.
One of the difficulties of this stage is that “the comet spins fast enough,” said Bertucci.
Rosetta is fired with a forced landing on the comet, which investigated 12 years
At 5 (8 GMT), the ship “will receive the last commands to refine your direction from the camera images of navigation, taken shortly after the maneuver of a collision,” said the ESA in a press release, adding that “at that time we will know the exact time of the impact of Rosetta”, which although scheduled for 7.40, the hours can vary because “the hours are subject to change due to circumstances beyond our control”.
All this maneuver -whose schedules are accurate will be reported on Twitter by the account @ESA_Rosetta and will be transmitted through the site https://livestream.com/ESA/rosettagrandfinale “live” from 7.30 am, taking into account that the signal takes around 40 minutes to travel the distance between the comet and the Earth.
To speed of passage of a man (80 inches per second), the probe will descend to the surface of the astro while it sends the last data and imagery, which are expected to be the most accurate ever taken.
Is that unlike the module Philae, which traveled with the probe and the November 12, 2014 and it remained on the surface of the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta has instruments more accurate,” said Bertucci, who recalled that the module was able to transmit very little because of the bounce in the descent was in a region that is very dark, no solar energy to the panels.”
Prior to this mission, the probe that close had been that of a comet had been the “Giotto”, which was launched in 1986, which rose to nearly 600 kilometres from Halley and “took a picture of the nucleus, but was picked up by a beating from impact of particles that hit the ship. A couple of instruments were very damaged,” recalled the astronomer, argentine.
According to informed scientists THAT it was impossible to leave the probe orbiting the comet -rather than making her collide against the surface – the interference that could happen in the band of frequencies that share the space missions.
that’s why, once the ship touches the surface of the comet, their systems will be shut off forever.
there will be finish a trip of more than 6,400 million kilometers started with the launch on 2 march 2004, a period during which Rosetta traveled for almost 10 years in hibernation mode until it was reactivated on 20 January 2014.
Thanks to the pack “of instruments dedicated to studying the chemical composition of the comet, its magnetic field or the plasma that surrounds it” is “trying to see if some components of the Earth, such as water or oxygen, could have emerged on Earth from impacts of comets,” said Bertucci.
In THAT “they are pretty sure that the water that was in the comet data when the same is created: it is thought that’s been stored there since the birth of the solar system,” assessed the astronomer on the studies that continue to be made thanks to the data provided by the mission.
in Addition, “you could study a lot about how the environment of the comet will change as it nears the sun. On that it is managed to know a lot. We were able to see processes are generated as the comet neared the sun and as it became to roll back when he walked away. And it was the first time that he was able to see that in real time”, he added.
