Rosetta is named after

the Rosetta Stone

SPACE UNCOVERED
Chasing comets

This ancient Egyptian slab

helped archaeologists make
sense of hieroglyphs

COMET ENCOUNTER
Spacecraft Rosetta is about to get up close and personal with
a comet. Its a mission that could teach us more about the
origins of water and life on Earth
WORDS BY

Alex Dale

n the next few months, the

European Space Agencys
Rosetta will become the first
spacecraft to attempt a rendezvous
with a comet. Upon its arrival in

August, Rosetta will place itself in

orbit around comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, a dirty ball of ice
currently lurking beyond Mars, and
join it on a journey through the inner
Solar System.
It will make the most detailed
analysis of a comet ever attempted.
These frozen objects sometimes
ejected from the outer reaches of our
solar system by changes in the gravity
acting on them are remnants of
cosmic debris left over from the Solar
Systems formation. It is believed that
by studying comets, we can learn more
about our systems beginnings
including, perhaps, the origin of water,
and thus life, on our planet.

WATER DELIVERY
During our solar systems infancy,
the planets were subject to a large
number of impacts from these bodies
and it is thought that during this
period water would have been
delivered to Earth, says Dr Matt
Taylor, Rosettas project scientist.
Recent measurements by ESAs
Herschel telescope have shown that
specic ratios of hydrogen isotopes of
Kuiper belt comets are similar to those
of Earth oceans, so there is an enticing
link between comets and our world.

IMAGES ESA

ROSETTA
SPACECRAFT

COMMUNICATIONS

Rosetta is controlled from the ground from the European

Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Due to
the distances involved, signals take 50 minutes to reach
the craft, so it was designed to be quite autonomous,
with failure recognition and recovery capabilities.
Onboard solid-state memory stores scientific data when
the orbiter is uncontactable.

Over the next 19 months, Rosetta

will follow and monitor the comet as it
approaches its perihelion the point
where its orbit takes it closest to the
Sun. Onboard instruments will
catalogue the composition of the tail
the comet leaves. This is formed as
volatile substances within the comet
are heated by the Suns radiation,
causing it to leave a trail of gas and
dust in its wake. But Rosetta will draw
most of its data from its lander probe
Philae, which it aims to deploy on to
the comets surface in November,
while it is still far enough away from
the Suns warmth to leave the surface
relatively inert.
Landing on an object we know
so little about is a tricky process,
but Rosetta has come prepared.
After the rendezvous, we will
begin a number of months of
accurately mapping, primarily
with [Rosettas onboard]
OSIRIS camera, to produce a
3D terrain map that will

OVER THE NEXT 19 MONTHS,

ROSETTA WILL FOLLOW AND
MONITOR THE COMET.
42

SCI07.space4.indd 42

allow engineers
and scientists to
start ltering down
the number of possible
landing sites, says
Taylor. In late summer
or early autumn we will
get to a single site. All this
time we will continue to
get closer to the comet,
enabling us to make gravity
measurements to tune how we
y to it.
Identifying a landing site that is
both scientically desirable and
feasible from an engineering
perspective will be a delicate and
exacting process. But the scientic
rewards could be immense
If the probes ndings conrm
earlier observations that indicate
comets such as 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko are rich in complex
organic molecules such as amino
acids, which are essential for life as
we know it, then Rosetta could help us
in understanding whether life as
well as our oceans rst came to
Earth via a comet.

@SciUncovered

4/29/14 2:56 PM

Rosettas mission is 21
years in the making

It was rst approved in November

1993, and originally targeted the
much smaller 46P/Wirtanen comet

SOLAR CELLS

Rosetta is the first space mission to journey beyond the

main asteroid belt relying solely on solar power. To
conserve the energy Rosetta needed for its trip, the
spacecraft went into hibernation for a 31-month period,.
During this time its 14-metre-long panels were too far
from the Sun to be able to keep the craft fully powered. As
the comet is now closer to the Sun on its orbit, the panels
are collecting enough power for Rosetta to be fully awake.

OSIRIS CAMERA

SPACE UNCOVERED
Chasing comets

STEERING ROSETTA TO
ITS DESTINATION

The craft has plenty of instruments onboard

to help it achieve its mission goals
+ Taking Rosetta to its far-off moving target was no
mean feat, but the craft also has work to do once it
has made its rendezvous. Here are the pieces of
equipment that are enabling it to reach and study
comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Rosettas imaging system OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic

and Infrared Remote Imaging System) consists of two
cameras. The first, a narrow-angle camera, is designed to
map the comets terrain in high-resolution so scientists can
find the best landing site for the lander probe Philae. The
wide-angle camera is designed to map the gas and dust in
the comets vicinity.

PHILAE
PROBE

PROBES AND METERS

ICE SCREWS

Landing a probe on a body with as

little gravity as a comet is an
engineering challenge. The Philae
lander will approach the surface
fairly slowly, with a touchdown
speed of one metre per second.
Harpoons will guide it to the
ground like a fish on a reel, and
rotatable ice screws on each foot
will help to secure it, even if it
lands on a slope.

In all, Rosetta will perform

10 experiments during its
time on the comet. The
lander is equipped with
various probes that will
study the surfaces
chemical composition, the
comets magnetic field and
its thermal properties.

DID YOU KNOW?

THE COMET IS PART OF
JUPITERS FAMILY

+ Rosettas destination, 67P/

Churyumov-Gerasimenko shown in here in the first
photo taken by the probe after it awoke from
hibernation in January is a Jupiter Family comet.
The orbits of these objects are all controlled by the
gravity of the Solar Systems largest planet, and have
an orbital period of less than 20 years.

@SciUncovered

SCI07.space4.indd 43

ROSETTAS
KEY EVENTS
+ 20 JANUARY 2014
Rosetta emerges
from the energysaving hibernation
state it has been in
since 8 June 2011.
+ AUGUST 2014
The spacecraft
arrives at its
destination comet,
67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko.
+ 13 AUGUST 2015
The comet enters its
perihelion passage,
when it passes
closest to the Sun.
Rosetta will examine
the comets
behaviour during and
after this phase.

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4/29/14 2:56 PM