Rosetta spacecraft and 6 billion km journey to comets

The Rosetta spacecraft took 10 years to cross the journey of more than 6 billion km to bring the robot Philae to land and study comets 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Journey 6 billion km to the comet of the Rosetta spacecraft

Giotto probe of the European Space Agency (ESA) is the first spacecraft to study comets. It flew into 150 million km space to study Halley comet in 1986.

When Giotto is about to debut, a small group of space scientists discuss an even more ambitious mission, which is the mission of the comet probe Rosetta.

Rosetta is named after the stone Rosetta, an ancient Egyptian artifact that allows scholars to first decipher hieroglyphs. " May 23, 1985 is Rosetta's birthday, " said Gerhard Schwehm, who attended the meeting.

The picture is the original design of Rosetta.

The Rosetta probe project was initially joined by the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) and ESA, with the goal of landing on comets, taking 10 kg of specimens to bring back to Earth.

However, their entire program and plan must change due to the fact that the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing seven astronauts on January 28, 1986.

For the next two years, NASA abandoned the sampling task because it was not feasible.Eventually, they built Philae robots to land on comets.

The real mission began in 1992. The construction of a spacecraft along with exploration robots and scientific tools was very complex and challenging.

The design of the spacecraft must ensure that the comet is met at the right place, at the right time, at the right speed.

Rosetta does not apply " nuclear battery " technology like Voyager and Cassini-Huygens probes . It uses new generation solar panels, manufactured by ESA and by its partners.

On March 2, 2004, the Rosetta spacecraft was launched in Guiana, France with the mission of studying comets 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko .It will begin a dangerous journey in the universe, stretching 6.4 billion km.

To save fuel, Rosetta uses the gravity of the Earth and Mars to increase or decrease velocity, while "hibernating " for a period of 3 years.

It helps us learn more about materials, including the compounds of carbon and water that existed during the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

The Rosetta probe gradually escapes from Earth's orbit and reaches Mars about 300 million kilometers from Earth.In late 2007, Rosetta returned to Earth again to gain momentum, bringing it to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

At this point, the optical navigation system will activate, to avoid collisions with asteroids.On June 8, 2011, Rosetta actively fell into a hibernation state for the next 31 months, because the solar energy did not generate enough electricity to operate at too far distances.

On January 20, 2014, Rosetta received the activation signal back from Earth, escaping from hibernation .

The strange form of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko was gradually revealed when the Rosetta spacecraft approached closer.On August 6, 2014, Rosetta flew at 55,000 km / h within 100 km of the comet.

On November 12, 2014, the robot exploration of Philae landed about 500 million kilometers from the Earth's comet, 7 hours after separating from the Rosetta spacecraft.

This is the first time the world space science has achieved this achievement.Philae probes for 60 hours, re-establishing contact with Rosetta and sending data to Earth.

Data content includes studies of comets, magnetic fields, dust and chemical components.However, the robot exploration Philae is trapped in a cliff, not collecting enough energy and falling into a state of " hibernation".Scientists have tried to determine its position but failed.

The photo above was posted on ESA's Twitter website on June 13, when Philae "woke up."

On the evening of June 13, 2015, the ESA headquarters in Germany unexpectedly received an active signal back from Philae , with more than 300 packets transmitted to the center. Philae is expected to send a large amount of data it collected before "hibernating" last year, helping scientists have more insight into comets.