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(meteorobs) Fwd: Actual comet landing scheduled

This was just a fine, succinct write-up of the Rosetta mission,
originally written by George Reynolds of the Back Bay [Virgiinia,
USA] Amateur Astronomers club, and forwarded by local New England
amateur Roger Greenwood. Let's all keep our fingers (but not our
eyes) crossed for a successful launch two weeks from today!

Clear skies,
Lew Gramer <owner-meteorobs@meteorobs.org>
Webmaster: http://www.meteorobs.org


-----Original Message-----
From: nhas@lists On Behalf Of Roger Greenwood
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:46 PM
To: NHAS CHAT
Subject: [NHAS] Actual comet landing scheduled

Some interesting space exploration tidbit from another yahoo
group that I found quite interesting:

In just 14 days, two weeks from today, the ROSETTA mission is scheduled
to launch.

It will take 10 years to reach its destination, which is a comet!  It
will be the first-ever attempted landing on a comet.  Deep Space One
photographed a comet from a distance, Stardust passed through the coma
and sampled the particles of a comet, Deep Impact (to launch in
Dec.2004) will blow a hole in the surface of a comet to sample its
internal structure and composition, but Rosetta will release a small
lander in an attempt to land on the surface of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  Rosetta is a mission of the European Space
Agency.

Rosetta is on a 10-year mission to explore comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will orbit Churyumov-Gerasimenko and make
observations for about two years as the comet approaches the Sun.

Launch date is 2/26/2004.  Expected date of COI (Comet Orbit Insertion)
is August, 2014.  Proposed comet landing is projected for November,
2014.  Launch had originally been scheduled for last year, and a
different comet had been the target, but problems with the ESA's launch
vehicle caused a delay and a change in plans.

Rosetta is named for the Rosetta Stone, an ancient script that provided
the key to decoding Egyptian hieroglyphs.  Its goal is to provide a key
to understanding the formation of the solar system.

Let's hope and pray the launch goes off without a hitch, and the
spacecraft gets on its way as planned.

Here is a link for more information:

http://solarsystem.nasadot gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Come
ts&MCode=Rosetta



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