The Europian Space Agency's Rosetta is the first spacecraft to orbit a comit for two years, which started on August 2014. It shadowed the icy Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, collecting and observing significant information from the chunk of dust and ice.
However, the £1billion Rosetta space mission has to come to an end. Its notable quest will end on Friday, and it is set to carry out its collision maneuvers, as the Europian spacecraft crash-lands on the surface of the comet at about 11:40am on Friday, UK time. The crumpled spacecraft will then be staying frozen on the surface of the comet for eternity, as the comet continues its travel around the solar system or until such time that it is destroyed.
According to Sky News, the reason for disposing Rosetta is because it is already heading further away from the sun, which makes it hard for its solar panels to generate enough energy to keep its mission going. And because the spacecraft was not designed for a soft landing, it will have to crash to the surface of its orbited comet, but scientists said that Rosetta will also not survive the crash.
Mirror UK has released a statement from Rosetta flight director Andrea Accomazzo, from the European Space Agency (ESA) Youtube hangout, saying, "From an energy point of view it will be a soft landing. But Rosetta's not designed to land, so there will be some energy dissipation. For sure, Rosetta will bounce or tumble on the surface of the comet, but will not bounce back into orbit."
He also added that they could have abandoned the spacecraft but that is not something that they would do.
Scientists will intently be watching the crash in order for them to collect images of the spacecraft few seconds before its historic mission will end. Rosetta was launched in 2004, and after a decade of journey, travelling throughout the solar system, it arrived on Comet 67P on August 2014.
Space.com has announced that the Rosetta team is set to speak about the mission on Friday, September 30, where ESA officials are expected to receive information from the spacecraft's dramatic end at around 7:20am. The events can be watched live on the aforementioned site.
Scientists are combining my data with ground-based observations to learn more not only about #67P but also other comets! #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/Vu35JZ71Lu
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) September 29, 2016
Indeed it will be an emotional time for the scientists behind the Rosetta mission. But this will be one of the events that will be remembered and recorded as one of the most heroic space mission.
