Philae is due to touch down on November 11th.
Where an appropriate silence will be observed.
Lest we forget.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed just how its Rosetta comet probe will close to within just 10km of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta arrived at the comet on August 6th and has since sent back lovely photos of the rock. The mission plan calls for even better photos to become possible by bringing Rosetta …
It's not in orbit as such... yet. Currently, it's undergoing a series of hyperbolic trajectory manoeuvres. Without regular thrusts it would currently leave the comet behind.
When it descends much nearer the comet's surface, it will be put into a roughly elliptical orbit. I imagine the gravitational field will be pretty variable so that would require a good bit of knowledge / number crunching / thrusts to keep things that way.
The scary bit is that Philae (the lander), doesn't have any thrusters, so it's landing will be more of a fall. Fortunately the comet's gravity is pretty weak, but to get an accurate landing the boffins are going to have to map it's (presumably wonky) gravity field, and take into account the pressure from any out-gassing from the surface and the solar wind.
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