[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/72406000/jpg/_72406432_de51.jpg[/img]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25814454[/url]
[quote]Rosetta, Europe's comet-chasing spacecraft, has woken from its slumber.
A signal confirming its alert status was received by controllers in Darmstadt, Germany, at 18:17 GMT.
Rosetta has spent the past 31 months in hibernation to conserve power as it arced beyond the orbit of Jupiter on a path that should take it to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.
Engineers will now finesse the probe's trajectory and prepare its instruments for the daring encounter.[/quote]
That's one hell of a long distance phone call.. hope it didn't reverse charge at interplanetary rates.
fuck yes
It hungers
(For comet)
This thing was launched in March of [B]2004[/B]. Shit's crazy
That shit blows my mind so hard.
And in the meantime it has done some really great stuff, and used the energy of a bunch of planets orbits to get where it has to go.
Basically the mission timeline up to now:
4th March 2005 - Earth flyby
25th February 2007 - Mars flyby - Measured the Martian magnetic environment and took pictures of the planet with different photographic filters.
13th November 2007 - Second Earth flyby, misidentified as asteroid.
5th September 2008 - Flyby of asteroid 2867 Šteins.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Steins-Rosetta.jpg[/img]
12th November 2009 - Last flyby of Earth.
16th March 2010 - Observed asteroid P/2010 A2.
10th July 2010 - Flew by and photographed asteroid 21 Lutetia
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Lutetia_closest_approach_%28Rosetta%29.jpg/1036px-Lutetia_closest_approach_%28Rosetta%29.jpg[/t]
8th June 2011 - Hibernated. All electronics except onboard computer and heaters switched off.
It hasn't even started its main mission, and it has already shown us some amazing stuff, and done some really cool stuff too.
It's also the furthest we've sent a craft that uses solar panels for energy.
Still a long way to go, but the things it will show us should be awesome.
The wikipedia article has already been amended. And why exactly are they going to the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet? What's special about it compared to other comets?
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;43610562]What's special about it compared to other comets?[/QUOTE]
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think anything makes the comet special apart from being the easiest to get to when launching at the time they did, they had actually originally planned for a different comet, but had to change the target after the launch was delayed.
It depends entirely on where the comets are and in what kind of orbits they are.
[QUOTE=LarparNar;43610611]I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think anything makes the comet special apart from being the easiest to get to when launching at the time they did, they had actually originally planned for a different comet, but had to change the target after the launch was delayed.
It depends entirely on where the comets are and in what kind of orbits they are.[/QUOTE]
Fair enough, figured it'd have something to do with position.
[QUOTE=LarparNar;43610534]And in the meantime it has done some really great stuff, and used the energy of a bunch of planets orbits to get where it has to go.
Basically the mission timeline up to now:
4th March 2005 - Earth flyby
25th February 2007 - Mars flyby - Measured the Martian magnetic environment and took pictures of the planet with different photographic filters.
13th November 2007 - Second Earth flyby, misidentified as asteroid.
5th September 2008 - Flyby of asteroid 2867 Šteins.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Steins-Rosetta.jpg[/img]
12th November 2009 - Last flyby of Earth.
16th March 2010 - Observed asteroid P/2010 A2.
10th July 2010 - Flew by and photographed asteroid 21 Lutetia
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Lutetia_closest_approach_%28Rosetta%29.jpg/1036px-Lutetia_closest_approach_%28Rosetta%29.jpg[/t]
8th June 2011 - Hibernated. All electronics except onboard computer and heaters switched off.
It hasn't even started its main mission, and it has already shown us some amazing stuff, and done some really cool stuff too.
It's also the furthest we've sent a craft that uses solar panels for energy.
Still a long way to go, but the things it will show us should be awesome.[/QUOTE]
How did they mistake Rosetta for an asteroid? Also, why would they send it to go back to Earth instead of just parking it in orbit around Mars? I have little to no knowledge of this, so sorry if it is a stupid question.
[QUOTE=Svinnik;43610912]How did they mistake Rosetta for an asteroid? Also, why would they send it to go back to Earth instead of just parking it in orbit around Mars? I have little to no knowledge of this, so sorry if it is a stupid question.[/QUOTE]
I assume (and this is only from my knowledge from playing kerbal space program) they wanted to save fuel and it's momentum. They would have to waste gas slowing it down and then speeding it back up again.
[QUOTE=Svinnik;43610912]How did they mistake Rosetta for an asteroid? Also, why would they send it to go back to Earth instead of just parking it in orbit around Mars? I have little to no knowledge of this, so sorry if it is a stupid question.[/QUOTE]
I usually don't think a lot of questions are stupid, certainly not yours, curiosity is good.
They sent the probe around several planets in order to use something called a gravitational slingshot, which gives the spacecraft more energy and launches it into a higher orbit. This was done several times with several planets, both to control it in the right direction by slingshotting it at just the right altitudes, and to save fuel requirements for the launch.
Parking it around anything would be a bad idea, you would need a lot of fuel to place it into the correct orbit, then a lot of fuel again to launch it away from said planet.
On the topic of being mistaken for an asteroid, that happened because images taken of the sky by asteroid-hunting telescopes only show dots of light, and to spot asteroids, we look for dots of light that move differently from the background stars. So for the astronomers studying the images it looked exactly like an asteroid around 20m in diameter. It was given an asteroid designation "2007 VN84".
Later it was found to match the trajectory of Rosetta, and eventually confirmed to be the spacecraft.
Very cool. This was sort of the ESA's "7 minutes of terror" albeit not as dramatic. But if the signal hadn't been received it would have been a letdown 31 months coming.
[QUOTE=Svinnik;43610912]How did they mistake Rosetta for an asteroid? Also, why would they send it to go back to Earth instead of just parking it in orbit around Mars? I have little to no knowledge of this, so sorry if it is a stupid question.[/QUOTE]They do it in order to give it boosts of speed by gaining extra momentum from slingshotting around Earth and Mars.
[IMG]http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/Lightbox/published/171/images/THUMB.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=demoguy08;43611098]Very cool. This was sort of the ESA's "7 minutes of terror" albeit not as dramatic. But if the signal hadn't been received it would have been a letdown 31 months coming.[/QUOTE]Well the part where they have to land the actually probe on the surface of the comet will definitely be several minutes of terror, anxiety and hope that it doesn't just crash right into it and have the whole mission be a bust.
[QUOTE=LarparNar;43611072]I usually don't think a lot of questions are stupid, certainly not yours, curiosity is good.
They sent the probe around several planets in order to use something called a gravitational slingshot, which gives the spacecraft more energy and launches it into a higher orbit. This was done several times with several planets, both to control it in the right direction by slingshotting it at just the right altitudes, and to save fuel requirements for the launch.
Parking it around anything would be a bad idea, you would need a lot of fuel to place it into the correct orbit, then a lot of fuel again to launch it away from said planet.
On the topic of being mistaken for an asteroid, that happened because images taken of the sky by asteroid-hunting telescopes only show dots of light, and to spot asteroids, we look for dots of light that move differently from the background stars. So for the astronomers studying the images it looked exactly like an asteroid around 20m in diameter. It was given an asteroid designation "2007 VN84".
Later it was found to match the trajectory of Rosetta, and eventually confirmed to be the spacecraft.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for answering. I should have known the gravity slingshot from my time playing KSP but the other really interests me. What websites do you recommend to give me a general knowledge about space?
[QUOTE=Killer900;43611105]They do it in order to give it boosts of speed by gaining extra momentum from slingshotting around Earth and Mars.
[img]http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/Lightbox/published/171/images/THUMB.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Ugh, I don't like this image, it's so dumbed down that I feel it becomes misleading.. :/
Here's a video showing how it really moves:
[url]http://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2013/12/Rosetta_s_Journey_B-Roll/Solar_system_animation_showing_Rosetta_trajectory[/url]
[editline]21st January 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Svinnik;43611141]Thanks for answering. I should have known the gravity slingshot from my time playing KSP but the other really interests me. What websites do you recommend to give me a general knowledge about space?[/QUOTE]
You can learn a lot just from checking space news websites like space.com and by reading articles about missions and orbits on Wikipedia.
There's also the space chat thread in General Discussion and I can promise you we're a friendly bunch :)
[QUOTE=LarparNar;43611170]Ugh, I don't like this image, it's so dumbed down that I feel it becomes misleading.. :/
Here's a video showing how it really moves:
[URL]http://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2013/12/Rosetta_s_Journey_B-Roll/Solar_system_animation_showing_Rosetta_trajectory[/URL][/QUOTE]Ah yes you are right, that's a lot more informative and detailed than the image I posted, thanks for sharing it, seriously! (i am serious :I)
[QUOTE=Killer900;43611105]
Well the part where they have to land the actually probe on the surface of the comet will definitely be several minutes of terror, anxiety and hope that it doesn't just crash right into it and have the whole mission be a bust.[/QUOTE]
Oh and there's that too. Being an aerospace engineer must be an anxiety-filled job :v:
What if it put them on hold
[QUOTE=LarparNar;43610534]
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Lutetia_closest_approach_%28Rosetta%29.jpg/1036px-Lutetia_closest_approach_%28Rosetta%29.jpg[/t]
8th June 2011 - Hibernated. All electronics except onboard computer and heaters switched off.
It hasn't even started its main mission, and it has already shown us some amazing stuff, and done some really cool stuff too.
It's also the furthest we've sent a craft that uses solar panels for energy.
Still a long way to go, but the things it will show us should be awesome.[/QUOTE]
it boggles my mind that that thing is there. That it exists, somewhere, so unfathomably far away
[QUOTE=LarparNar;43611170]Ugh, I don't like this image, it's so dumbed down that I feel it becomes misleading.. :/
Here's a video showing how it really moves:
[url]http://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2013/12/Rosetta_s_Journey_B-Roll/Solar_system_animation_showing_Rosetta_trajectory[/url]
[editline]21st January 2014[/editline]
You can learn a lot just from checking space news websites like space.com and by reading articles about missions and orbits on Wikipedia.
There's also the space chat thread in General Discussion and I can promise you we're a friendly bunch :)[/QUOTE]
The math that must have had to been done to find such a path is incredible. It hits like every planet in the optimal path.
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