ESA re-activated the comet probe Rosetta

Scientists and engineers at the European Aeronautics Agency (ESA) are anxious to wait for the first signals sent from the Rosetta spacecraft to determine the possibility of reactivation after 31 months of lying in a suspended state.

>>>Video: Rosetta's comet exploration ship

Launched in March 2004 on Ariane 5 G + rocket from Kourou, Guiana island, Rosetta was assigned to catch up and fly around comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko . Rosetta's work may sound simple but it requires a very long journey, taking 10 years and the ship has done many complex orbits with 4 times the exploitation of auxiliary gravity, 3 from the Earth. and 1 word Mars to achieve the speed needed to catch comet 67P in May 2014. During this time, Rosetta also approached Stein and Lutetia meteorites. There is only one problem in Rosetta's schedule that the last loop of the ship's trajectory will take it through Mars toward Jupiter. The distance too far will cause the solar panels on the ship to cease to function and to prevent permanent freezing and stability, the mission control mission on Earth has set the ship to spin in proportion. once a minute, bring the ship to a deep sleep state on June 8, 2011. Since then, Rosetta only used some heat generators to keep the electronic equipment on board.

31 months later, Rosetta is currently 673 million kilometers from the Sun - a close enough distance for solar panels to provide enough energy. However, the ship still hasn't received any signal from Earth. In fact, the mission control department is still waiting for signals sent from Rosetta.

Rosetta and Philae lander

If everything goes according to plan, the first part to be heated is the star tracking system, which takes about 6 hours to reactivate. After that, the ship will use the propulsion system to reduce rotation speed and direct the panels to the Sun. The star tracking system will determine the status of Rosetta and high-altitude antennas that will point to Earth to transmit an 807-million-kilometer signal to the mission control department in Darmstadt, Germany. The transmission time will take about 45 minutes.

Once the communication is reconnected, ESA will perform a system check and re-activate the ship's testing tools when it is 9 million kilometers from comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, expected to be in January. 8 after adjusting the status in May. If all goes well, Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet in August.

Once in orbit, Rosetta will begin the main mission of studying the origin of comets, the characteristics of comets, the physical properties of the gases they emit while moving and how comets replace change to approach the Sun. In addition, Rosetta will also deploy the Philae amphibious ship to make the first landfall in a comet surface. The mission is scheduled to end on December 31, 2015 after the comet 67P is closest to the Sun on August 13, 2014.