The reactivation ofRosetta’s instruments is a delicate process, controlled by the European Space Agency ESA, and closely followed by all the scientists involved in the mission, and in particular by those of the Paris Observatory.
Rosetta is now roughly 650 million km from the Sun (corresponding to Jupiter’s orbit). It is moving at over 130 000 km/h.
Launched on March 2nd 2004 from Kourou, it will reach its target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in the Spring of 2014, having crossed 5 billion km of interplanetary space during 10 years !
Two distinct stages are programmed :
- From May to November : flight over the comet.
- Sometime between the 11th and the 14th of November : delivery to the
surface of a small module « Philae », for the analysis of the
composition.
Given the enormous distance over which the rendez-vous manoeuvre will be carried out by remote control, this will be undoubtedly as great a feat as the first manned landing on the Moon.
Through the involvement of two of its research units : the Laboratoire d’etudes spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique - LESIA – (the laboratory of space research and instrumentation) and the Laboratoire d’études du rayonnement et de la matière en astrophysique et atmosphères – LERMAA (the laboratory for radiation and matter in astrophysics and atmospheres), the Paris Observatory has been associated with this space mission right from the start.
The scientists of the Paris Observatory, both cometary specialists and others, engineers and technicians, are now thus all eagerly anticipating this event.