The Rosetta space probe was launched on March 2, 2004, by the European Space Agency (ESA). Named after the famous Rosetta Stone that helped European researchers translate Egyptian hieroglyphics, it was the first time a mission was sent into space with the goal of orbiting a comet and then landing on it.
While the name alluded to the fact that this mission aimed to shed light on subjects that had long fascinated scientists, it was also based on the fact that the craft carried 6,500 pages of language translations that had been micro-etched onto a nickel prototype of the Rosetta Stone.
The Background and Launch
The European Space Agency designed Rosetta and a lander named Philae to study the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet for two years. This was classed as the ESA’s third cornerstone mission in its Horizon 2000 program, following the SOHO / Cluster and XMM-New projects.
The investigation of Halley’s Comet by space probes in 1986 included Giotto from the ESA. These missions were considered to be successful but it became clear that more studies were needed to help us more fully understand comets.
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a comet from the Kuiper belt that measures 2.7 by 2.5 miles at its widest points. It was discovered in 1969, with its name coming from the Soviet astronomers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenk, who first spotted it when looking at images in the Alma-Ata Astrophysical Institute.
The Rosetta and Philae launch was carried out on March 2, 2004, from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. Before reaching its final destination on the comet, it carried out flybys of Earth and Mars as well as the asteroids named 21 Lutetia and 2867 Šteins. Rosetta also became the first craft to get close to Jupiter’s orbit using mainly solar power.
The Orbit and Landin
By January 2014, the craft had been in hibernation mode for 31 months. This was ended as it began its approach to the Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet. It reached the comet in August and began to complete the manoeuvres needed to enter orbit.
Rosetta became the first craft to successfully orbit a comet, with previous missions of this type only carrying out flybys. With 12 instruments on the Rosetta orbiter and nine on the Philae landing craft, this mission was able to carry out the most complete study of any comet ever made during the 17 months it was in orbit.
On November 12 of the same year, the Philae lander performed the first successful soft landing ever made on a comet nucleus.
The Mission Following Landing
The lander’s battery power only lasted a couple of days after landing, during which time it was able to send back images and data. Although it briefly re-established connection a couple of times in the following year, the communications module connecting Rosetta and Philae was turned off on July 27, 2016.
A few months later, the camera onboard Rosetta spotted its lander as it passed low over the comet’s surface. It showed that Philae had landed awkwardly on its side in a crevice that little or no sunlight reached, which explained why it was unable to use solar power to charge its battery and establish a good connection.
The Mission Ending
The mission was successfully finished on September 30, 2016, when it was launched into a controlled impact with the comet that it had been circling and investigating. This event marked the successful completion of the mission. It was with this incident that we were able to complete this task successfully. The landing was accomplished in the Ma’at section of the region.