Rosetta Mission Essay

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that
technology has been combined with space to create and do some pretty amazing
things. The Rosetta mission, named after Rosetta stone, which can be found in
Londons British museum, is headed by The European Space Agency, has been on a
mission for ten years to catch the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and on
November 12, 2014, history was finally made.

Rosettas Philae lander touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, not

once, but twice, because it bounced on landing. Philae separated from Rosetta,
harpoons fired, and it was then connected to the comet. This specific mission has
several goals, which according to NASA website were: catch the comet and ride it into
the interior solar system, to observe the nucleus and coma, deploy Philae and make the
first landing on a comet, and observe the changes associated with season change.
So when Philae landed on a comet, the world rejoiced, because this was the first real
landing of a probe on a comet. Comets are important for us to examine and study.

Take comet 67P, for example the ice on this comet might contain the same molecules
that were present at the beginning of the solar system. Its also extremely difficult to
land on because comets are moving very fast. The comet that Philae landed on, comet
67P, is circling the sun at 84,000 miles per hour. And even though it's only about 300
million miles away, the probe had to travel 4,000,000,000 miles to get to the comet,
hurling around the Earth three times to increase speed.
I am sad to say that just a few days ago, the Philae lander went to sleep, or the battery
died. Prior to dying, the lander transmitted all data to the European Space Agency.
Under the tough, icy conditions, the European Space Agency and NASA, also a partner
with ESA in this mission, said they could not be more impressed with the Philae lander
and its scientific success.