The Rosetta spacecraft is about to crash into a comet, bringing to an end one of the most important missions in recent history.
Final preparations are being made to send the craft into the comet that it has spent months circling, destroying the probe and ending operations on the £1bn mission. But in Rosetta’s final hours, it might provide some of its most important information yet – snapping pictures and hoovering up data as it makes its way to the comet’s surface.
This evening, final commands will be sent to the Rosetta craft, ordering it to begin a descent that will see it landing on the rock’s surface. Once it does, it will be destroyed – lying on the comet’s surface, alongside the Philae lander, for millions of years as it flies around the sun.
Rosetta will start its “collision manoeuvre” at 9.50pm UK time on Thursday. From that point, its course will be set – there’ll be no turning back for Rosetta on its way down to the rock’s surface.
The spacecraft will fly towards the comet and is expected to hit the ground at 11.40am UK time on Friday. But it’ll take around 40 minutes for confirmation of that, because of the time it takes for the radio signals to get back to Earth.
The worry for those behind the mission is that there won’t be time for all of that useful information to be communicated back to Earth before the craft is destroyed.
Scientists decided to crash the craft because the comet is now getting so far away from the sun that the solar panels won’t be able to generate enough power to keep it functioning. But by crashing it, they hope to get some last glimpses of the comet – taking what are expected to be stunning images and important data as it heads towards the surface.
The European Space Agency will share those pictures starting on 30 September, through its special picture page and on its social media channels.
Rosetta arrived at its comet – known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – in August 2014, after a 10-year journey. Three months later it dropped a lander called Philae onto the surface, which had been sending back information until scientists lost contact with it – and then found it again, earlier this month.
