• Space/Science
  • GeekSpeak
  • Mysteries of
    the Multiverse
  • Science Fiction
  • The Comestible Zone
  • Off-Topic
  • Community
  • Flame
  • CurrentEvents

Recent posts

To be blunt, NASA is now dead RL June 27, 2025 11:56 am (Space/Science)

Musk trashes his own AI after it chose a liberal worldview. RobVG June 23, 2025 9:56 am (CurrentEvents)

Psyche keeps its date with an asteroid BuckGalaxy June 22, 2025 5:21 pm (Space/Science)

Just for the record... ER June 22, 2025 8:59 am (CurrentEvents)

The Three Unknowns After the U.S. Strike on Iran BuckGalaxy June 22, 2025 12:58 am (CurrentEvents)

There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. BuckGalaxy June 22, 2025 12:29 am (Flame)

Not ready for prime time BuckGalaxy June 19, 2025 12:18 pm (Space/Science)

hypocrisy ER June 15, 2025 2:30 pm (Flame)

NSIDC offline? ER June 12, 2025 12:19 pm (Space/Science)

Wouldn't it be nice BuckGalaxy June 11, 2025 3:13 pm (Off-Topic)

Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin BuckGalaxy June 9, 2025 1:35 pm (Off-Topic)

So, it is official RL June 6, 2025 5:39 pm (Space/Science)

Home » Space/Science

Sneaking up on a Sweaty Comet . . . July 2, 2014 8:33 am DanS

Sneaking up on a Sweaty Comet

6-30-2014 | Caleb A. Scharf

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

Over the coming month the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission will fire its main engines no less than eight times to tweak its interplanetary intercept course with Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko; eventually sidling up to the 4 kilometer wide cometary nucleus at about 7.9 meters per second in early August. At that point, with some gentler rocket burns, the roughly 3,000 lb spacecraft will try to insert itself into an orbit around this lumpy body. A couple of months later, after the surface of the nucleus has been mapped, Rosetta will release Philae – a 200 lb lander that will drift down to the body and attach itself with harpoons and drills.

More.

    Search

    The Control Panel

    • Log in
    • Register