ESA announces final Rosetta mission
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft is set to complete its historic mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September.
It is just over two years since Rosetta made its rendez-vous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Members of the media have been invited to join Rosetta science and mission control experts at the ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, on 29 and 30 September, to follow the conclusion of this historic mission.
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014, following a ten-year journey through the Solar System after its launch on 2 March 2004.
After two years living with the comet, returning a wealth of scientific information during its closest approach to the Sun, Rosetta and the comet are now heading out beyond the orbit of Jupiter again.
Travelling further from the Sun than ever before, and faced with a significant reduction in the solar power that it needs to operate, Rosetta’s destiny has been set.
Confirmation of the end of the mission is expected from ESA’s main control room at 11:20 (GMT) on 30 September, with the spacecraft set on a collision course with the comet the evening before.
Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior science adviser at the ESA, said: “The comet is already about 650km from Earth and will carry Rosetta beyond Jupiter.
“It has done some amazing science but this is the end of its mission.”
The final hours of descent will enable Rosetta to make many once-in-a-lifetime measurements, including analysing gas and dust closer to the surface than ever possible before, and taking very high resolution images of the comet nucleus.
These data should be returned during the descent up to the moment of final impact, after which communication with the spacecraft will not be possible.
