Rosetta Lander

Rosetta lander on comet's surface (artist's impression). Click on image for full size (50K JPEG) Image courtesy ESA.

Part of the Rosetta spacecraft is a lander that will touch down on the surface of the comet. Since the comet is much smaller than a planet or even a moon, the gravity on its surface is very weak. The engineers who designed the Rosetta lander had to make sure it doesn't bounce (and maybe tip over!) when it lands. The lander will be moving very slowly, between 0.7 and 1.5 meters per second (1.5 to 3.4 miles/hour), when it touches down. It will shoot harpoons into the icy surface of the comet when it lands. Cables from the harpoons will anchor the lander to the surface.

The Rosetta lander was originally supposed to land on a small comet named Comet Wirtanen. When the launch of the Rosetta mission had to be delayed, scientists were forced to choose a new target for the mission. Rosetta is now scheduled to land on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. The nucleus of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is about four times larger than the nucleus of Comet Wirtanen, so the gravity of Rosetta's new target is about 30 times stronger than the gravity of its original target. This means the lander will be coming down faster when it makes its landing, so mission engineers had to make some changes to the lander to keep it from hitting too hard and possibly tipping over. They added a "tilt limiter" to the landing gear of the spacecraft that keeps the lander's legs from flexing too much on landing. This change should ensure a safe landing for the Rosetta lander.

The lander will carry various instruments that it will use to study the comet. Instruments called spectrophotometers will analyze the surface, reporting the types of chemicals found there. The lander also has small drills that will dig into the comet to retrieve core samples. These samples will help us determine the subsurface composition of the comet. The lander also has cameras that will take pictures of the surface in both visible and infrared wavelengths.

This is what an artist thinks the Rosetta lander will look like on the comet's surface. Click on image for full size (51K JPEG) Image courtesy ESA.

Part of the Rosetta spacecraft is a lander that will touch down on the surface of the comet. Since the comet is much smaller than a planet or even a moon, the gravity on the surface is very weak. The engineers who designed the Rosetta lander had to make sure it doesn't bounce (and maybe tip over!) when it lands. The lander will be moving very slowly, about one meter/second (two miles/hour), when it touches down. It will shoot harpoons into the icy surface of the comet when it lands. Cables from the harpoons will help hold the lander down on the surface.

The Rosetta mission was supposed to study a comet named Wirtanen. There were some problems with the rocket that Rosetta will be launched on, so Rosetta's launch had to be delayed. Because of the delay, the mission will now study a different comet. Rosetta will study Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The lander will touch down on the nucleus of Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. The new comet is much bigger than the old one, so it has more gravity. That means the Rosetta lander will be going faster when it lands. Engineers had to make some changes to the legs of the lander to make sure it has a soft landing on the surface of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Instruments on the lander will measure the types of chemicals found on the surface. The lander also has small drills that will dig into the comet. Samples dug up by the drills will help us find out what is "underground" on a comet. The lander also has cameras that will take pictures from the surface.

Part of the Rosetta spacecraft will land on a comet! Here is what an artist thinks it might look like. Click on image for full size (51K JPEG) Image courtesy ESA.

Part of the Rosetta spacecraft will land on the comet. The comet is much smaller than a planet, so gravity is very weak. The engineers who built the lander had to make sure it doesn't bounce when it lands. When the lander touches down, it will shoot harpoons into the icy surface of the comet. Cables from the harpoons will help hold the lander down!

Rosetta will land on the nucleus of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When Rosetta was built, it was supposed to land on a different comet. There were problems with the rocket that will take Rosetta into space. Rosetta had to wait while engineers fixed its rocket. The new comet is bigger than the old one. It has stronger gravity, so Rosetta will be going faster when it lands. The engineers had to make the lander's legs better so it would be ready to land on the bigger comet. Rosetta is ready to go now!

The lander has instruments that will measure the types of chemicals found on the surface of the comet. It also has small drills that will dig into the comet, so we can find out what is "underground". The lander also has cameras that will show us what it looks like to stand on a comet!