Rosetta To Finish 12-Yr Probe With Comet Crash-Land

After 12 years chasing a comet across 6 billion km in space, European scientists will end the historic Rosetta mission by crash landing the spacecraft on the surface of the dusty, icy body at the end of the month. Data collected by Rosetta and its Lander Philae has helped scientists better understand how the Earth and other planets were formed. The Spacecraft has managed several historic firsts, including the first time a spacecraft has orbited a comet rather than just whizzing past to snap fly by pictures, and the first time a probe has landed on a comet’s surface. It was also the first mission to venture beyond the main asteroid belt relying solely on solar cells for power.

After two years of circling comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, collecting a treasure trove of data that will keep scientists busy for years to come, the comet’s distance from the sun is nearing the point where solar power will become too weak to operate the spacecraft. In the final hours of its controlled descent on September 30, Rosetta will be able to take close-up pictures of the comet and collect data on gases closer to the surface before joining Philae and shutting down forever.

Scientists said the spacecraft by far exceeded their expectations by surviving the trip for as long as it did. It successfully sent its 100 kg washing machine sixed Lander down to the surface in November 2014 in what was considered as remarkable feat of precision space travel, even if the Lander ended up bouncing and coming to rest in the shade where it could not be recharged. Rosetta has detected key organic compounds in the comet, bolstering the motion that comets delivered the chemical building blocks for life long ago to Earth and throughout the solar system.