Rosetta and the Philae Mission: An Amazing Story to be Told

 

Have you heard of "Rosetta" and "Philae?" 

Yes, I am talking about the famous interstellar love story of the Philae lander and its partner satellite, Rosetta. It was not just a mission but a story to be told as the Philae lander left an indelible mark in the hearts of people.

It is not wrong to call it "the great Rosetta and Philae mission," as it has achieved a few of the biggest milestones in history. They did what no spacecraft had ever done before: orbit a comet and land on it. Its tragic end also fabricates a thriller story that cannot be forgotten. So, let’s dive deep into the mission and understand why we still admire Rosetta’s Philae lander.

Landing at the Destined Location

Rosetta is a European deep space probe launched in 2004 and consists of the orbiter spacecraft Rosetta and the lander Philae. The goal of the mission, which was designed to make human history in space, was to slingshot the spacecraft around the planet until it finally caught up with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimov. Over 300 million miles from Earth, comet 67P is currently zipping around the sun at a speed of 84,000 miles per hour.

The Rosetta spacecraft, then, spent ten years travelling more than 4 billion miles to align with the comet's orbit. Rosetta circled the Earth three times to pick up speed and spent nearly three years in hibernation owing to its distance from the sun in order to get in line with the ancient, deformed chunk of ice and rock. Ultimately, the pair approached Comet 67P in 2014. Nobody anticipated how it would seem. When they got there, they discovered comet 67P had the strangest form. From some perspectives, it resembled a rubber duck that was 4 km (2.5 miles) broad.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Jan. 31, 2015 | Source: NASA

Images and data gathered at distances of 30–100 km from the comet were used to determine the landing site, which was given the name Agilkia and is situated on the head of the double-lobed object. After spending some time at 10 km to allow for a more in-depth examination of the selected landing location, Rosetta shifted to a more distant trajectory to get ready for the deployment of Philae. Scientists discovered just before releasing Philae that the thrusters were not working. But they decided to land it without propulsion or guidance. During those critical seven hours of descent, Philae took amazing pictures of the comet’s surface and atmosphere and landed successfully on the target.

Philae landing on the comet 67P | Source: The German Aerospace Center (DLR)

When Philae reached the Comet

As all of Philae's equipment was turned on for data collection, the lander briefly entered slumber, leaving ESA operators uncertain of its whereabouts.

Contact with Philae was re-established on November 14, 2014, and data was then sent from Philae to the mothership. At 00:36 UT on November 15, Philae's primary battery ran out, and contact was lost. It had been operating on its own for 64 hours, including 57 hours on the surface, at this point.

 80 per cent of the initial science sequence had been completed by Philae, which had sent back stunning photographs of its surroundings. These images showed a cometary surface covered in dust and debris that ranged in size from a few inches to a yard (millimetres to a meter). Additionally, Philae observed the daily fluctuations in temperature and evaluated the comet's surface characteristics and internal structure. It also discovered complex compounds that might serve as the fundamental building blocks of life. 

Philae's search on the surface of the comet | Source: The German Aerospace Center (DLR)

As sunlight hit the lander's solar panels in August 2015, ESA controllers hoped that the lander might be revived, but they assumed that Philae's mission was essentially done in November 2014. Rosetta continued to take numerous images of the comet while searching for Philae, but it was nowhere to be found.

Tragic End 

Rosetta kept scientists updated, but Philae’s whereabouts were still unknown.

After a seven-month hibernation, Philae awoke. On June 13, 2015, the lander sent signals to the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt for only 85 seconds, indicating that Philae was functioning well and prepared for operations. But another 13 months passed, and scientists could not make a connection with Philadelphia. Rosetta's own solar cells were no longer able to draw enough power to allow it to communicate with Philae since Comet 67P had moved so far away from the sun.

Rosetta and its lander were made to appear to be living, breathing extensions of the daring explorers who sent them into space by those tweeting for them. We were persuaded to follow Philae's exciting trip by Rosetta and Philae, who were portrayed as friends who were tweeting affectionately to one another. The social presence of Rosetta and Philae kept people intrigued throughout the mission and admiring it as a great love story, which ended with the parish of Rosetta and Philae.

The Most Iconic Discoveries of the Mission 

Rosetta's key discoveries included the discovery of water vapour in comet 67P/G-C (vapour that is significantly different from that found on Earth), the detection of both molecular nitrogen and molecular oxygen for the first time at a comet, the existence of exposed water ice on the comet's surface, and the discovery of the amino acid glycine and phosphorus. These findings were made in addition to gathering an enormous amount of data on the properties of the comet, including its interior, surface, and surroundings.

The mission will be recorded in history, as the information Philae returned will keep scientists occupied for years to come. Now that we've had our last glimpse at Philae, the rest of us may all remember it as the robot who made history by being the first to set foot on a comet.