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Rosetta's Stone-Cold Comet: Comet Orbiter and Lander Mate, Will Run Hot and Cold Tests
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
17 December 2001
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Rosetta reunion as Lander is delivered and matedWASHINGTON -- A union made for heaven. The first spacecraft to attempt a soft-landing on the icy nucleus of a comet has been coupled to its "mother craft" -- a critical step toward their departure from Earth in January 2003. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission is slated for an eight-year plunge through deep space to reach Comet 46 P/Wirtanen.After braking into orbit around its icy prey in 2011, the orbiter mother craft will unleash the lander. Slowly descending toward the comet, the lander will touch down and start weeks of on-the-spot studies. An early chill Early this month, engineers at the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) in the Netherlands carefully latched the lander to the orbiter. The combined craft are now slated for extensive checkouts, including a test that bakes and freezes the spacecraft to assure their survivability during the lengthy trek to Comet Wirtanen. ESA targets January 2003 for the Rosetta mission sendoff from Kourou, French Guiana, courtesy of a powerful Ariane 5 booster.But getting to the comet wont just mean putting Rosetta on cruise control. To reach the celestial wanderer, the spacecraft must zip by Mars once, followed by two Earth gravity assists. Those flybys add more orbital speed and puts Rosetta on a heading to begin orbiting the comet in the summer of 2011. On the fly, Rosetta will whisk by two asteroids and take images of each: Asteroid Otawara in July 2006 and Asteroid Siwa in July 2008 Take a stand Once in orbit about the comet, the Rosetta orbiter begins a comprehensive survey of the object's solid nucleus. From that data, scientists and engineers will select a lander touchdown spot. After gaining a firm, three-legged stance atop Comet Wirtanen, the 211-pound (96-kilogram) lander's cache of instruments can relay close-up images, dig into the crust, sample ice and gas on site, and probe the internal structure of the huge cosmic snowball. "Working in unison, the lander and the orbiter will revolutionize our understanding of comets," said Rosetta project scientist, Gerhard Schwehm. "They will lead to amazing discoveries about the most primitive building blocks of the solar system."
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