European Rosetta Space Craft About To Rendezvous With Comet 62
Taco Cowboy (5327) writes After a long 10-year journey spanning some four (4) billion kilometers, Rosetta, an interplanetary space craft from the ESA (European Space Agency), is on its final approach to comet Comet 67P (or comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko). The last in a series of 10 thruster firings over the past few months has slowed Rosetta to the pace of a person walking, about two miles per hour relative to the speed of its target at a distance of about 60 miles. Photographs have already revealed a surprisingly irregular shape for the 2.5-mile-wide comet, possibly an amalgamation of two icy bodies or a result of uneven weathering during previous flybys. From a distance, the blurry blob initially looked somewhat like a rubber duck. As the details came into the focus, it now more resembles a knob of ginger flying through space. Wednesday marks a big moment for space exploration: After a few thruster rockets fire for a little over six minutes, Rosetta will be in position to make the first-ever rendezvous with that comet nickname 'Rubber Duck.' 'This burn, expected to start at 11 a.m. central European time, will tip Rosetta into the first leg of a series of triangular paths around the comet, according to the Paris-based European Space Agency, or ESA, which oversees the mission. Each leg will be about 100 kilometers (62 miles) long, and it will take Rosetta between three to four days to complete each leg. There will be a live streaming webcast of Rosetta's Aug. 6 orbital arrival starting at 8 a.m. GMT via a transmission from ESA's spacecraft operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Also at the BBC.
Re:Be sure to watch the live event (Score:4, Funny)
(Disclaimer: I'll be one of the speakers :-)
. . . will you be speaking live, from the spacecraft?
That would surely impress the finicky crowd here. And make us all jealous!
Re:Be sure to watch the live event (Score:5, Funny)
Ha ;-) From the live event at ESA's mission control centre in Darmstadt.
That said, there are some colleagues I tried to have volunteer to go ...
Re:Why aren't space pictures better? (Score:4, Funny)
It's like the difference between silently swearing at the idiot in the car right in front of you and honking in a traffic jam at some idiot a mile away.