Comet Landing Pictures - The Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) will deploy its Philae lander Wednesday, Nov. 12, making its first comet touchdown in space history. Based on the update by Space.com, the Philae is projected to make a seven-hour descent from Rosetta to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and will land at 10:35 a.m. EST (1535 GMT).
The daring mission, which has travelled 6 billion kilometers for more than 10 years, is a momentous breakthrough that has been reached in the expedition of making a comet landing by a spacecraft. According to the BBC News, the mission will be taking pictures on some obscurities surrounding the icy relics from the formation of the Solar System.
"Philae is gone. It is on its path down to the comet," Rosetta flight operations director Andrea Accomazzo said.
Contact has now been lost with Philae, as expected. The Guardian reported that sometime after 11 a.m. GMT, contact will be reestablished once Rosetta has plotted into position. At this point, first pictures of the comet landing will be sent to Earth.
The comet landing data will include science readings taken during Philae's descent and "housekeeping" telemetry that will tell engineers about the lander's status. While pictures of the landing that was taken from Rosetta are expected to be received after 1 p.m.
Prior to the Rosetta probe, no mission has previously made a soft landing on a comet and its success would be the first for space exploration history. However, the Philae needs to be cautious of bouncing back into space because of the difficulty caused by the very low gravity on the 4 kilometer-wide ice mountain.
Once the Philae makes its comet landing, it will release foot screws and harpoons to try to fasten its position. It will then take pictures of its surroundings, which is an odd landscape that contains deep pits and tall ice tips. But the event has an extremely uncertain outcome.
On early Wednesday (GMT), the third "go/no-go" decision was postponed. The thruster system used to push the robot into the surface of the comet at the moment of landing could not be primed.
The comet's complex terrain means that Philae could bash into cliffs, tumble down a sharp slope, or even disappear into a crack. But in spite of the challenges, ESA's Rosetta mission manager Fred Jansen said he's very hopeful of a positive outcome.
More than 4.5 billion years ago, comets almost positively hold significant evidences about the original resources that went into building the Solar System. And the pictures of the successful comet landing will show an immense opportunity to illustrate a cosmic wonder directly.
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