Rosetta mission end in sight: 12 years of dating comet ends in September – SAPO Tek

After 12 years, the European Space Agency (ESA) will end the Rosetta mission. The European probe ends its “dating” to 30 next September, landing on the surface of your object of desire, the asteroid 67P.

The Rosetta complete a full travel advances in the knowledge of these rocky bodies in the same comet which is already its Philae module, “dormant” since last year.

the ESA explains that as you approach the orbit of Jupiter, the solar energy that powers the probe and its instruments decreases, the same way that reduces the bandwidth used for the transmission of scientific data collected.

If this is added the aging of the ship and payload, “which bore a very adverse environment for over 12 years, “particularly near a comet with large amounts of dust, it is” logical “that the probe life is near the end.

Remember that the Rosetta entered a period of hibernation 31 months in 2011, during the farthest stage of his journey, but a gender solution is not feasible at this time, it would require an expenditure of energy for your agree that this will no longer have.

currently, the comet chasing is moving away from the Sun and continue on this route until a distance of 850 million kilometers, and from 600 million kilometers, will lose the ability to store energy to function. Then came the moment of the Rosetta follow the same fate as its Philae module toward the comet, “won” nearly two years ago – and had the right to an album of photos to celebrate the first anniversary of the bumpy arrival.

“For both will be the end of the most beautiful mission you can imagine,” said Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the CNES French space program. This is because communication with the probe ends with “acometagem” but in the last hours of descent ESA believes it will be possible to “perform various single measurements”, including the ultra-high resolution image recording, “which will increase the scientific return of mission with valuable data. “

And” the most beautiful end for Rosetta to give a last kiss on his comet, “said Jean-Yves Le Gall.

Recorde- that the Rosetta mission was launched in order to study for the first time, on-site, these celestial bodies considered as time capsules of the origins of the solar system.