The Philae lander from European Space Agency's Rosetta mission's landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Credit: ESA - European Space Agency
Credit: ESA - European Space Agency
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TechTranscript
00:00This is the moment we made history by landing on a comet.
00:10Ten years ago, our Rosetta mission got up close and personal with a comet,
00:17landing a probe called Philae on the surface to directly study the properties of a comet for the first time ever.
00:26The mission was groundbreaking. It was only the seventh celestial object we have landed on before.
00:34It was an ambitious journey filled with many ups and downs.
00:38But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's take a look back at the mission ten years on.
00:44Comets are large objects made of dust and ice that have elliptical orbits around the sun,
00:58which stretch far out into the outer edges of the solar system.
01:02They are believed to be left over from when the planets formed,
01:06and scientists think they could hold the answers to how life formed on Earth,
01:11why we have water on Earth, and how the solar system evolved.
01:17You may recognise comets from their distinctive bright tail,
01:21caused by the sun heating up the frozen comet core as they head towards the inner solar system,
01:27leaving behind this bright streak of dust and gas.
01:31Most comets are too small and far away to see from Earth, even with some of the biggest telescopes.
01:38And when they do come close, their bright tail obscures our view of the actual comet itself,
01:45making it hard to see and study from Earth.
01:48That's where our Rosetta mission comes in.
01:51Rosetta was launched in March 2004 on one of our Ariane 5 rockets.
02:06From here, it set off on its ten-year-long journey to Comet 67P, Duryumov-Gerasimenko.
02:14The comet was chosen as it originated in the Cowper belt,
02:18but does not venture out much farther than Jupiter anymore,
02:21making it perfect to align with Rosetta's journey.
02:25However, the journey was anything but simple.
02:29Rosetta required some energy boosts along the way,
02:32starting with the gravity assist of Earth, just a year after launch,
02:36which sent the spacecraft on towards Mars for another boost.
02:41From here, Rosetta came back to Earth before passing by the diamond-shaped asteroid Steinez.
02:47And returning back to Earth for one final boost.
02:51Rosetta then got on its way to deeper space,
02:54flying past the huge ancient rock Letizia, grabbing photos and data along the way.
03:01After all of this excitement, as Rosetta travelled on farther from the Sun,
03:06it did not have enough solar power to operate fully.
03:10So was put into standby mode, sending the spacecraft into a two-year, seven-month and twelve-day slumber.
03:18In January 2014, the world sent Rosetta a wake-up call,
03:23and the team got sent to work to make sure all the instruments on board were working after the long break.
03:29The spacecraft still had ten more manoeuvres to perform to align it correctly with the comet,
03:37and to get it to the right speed so it would be captured by the comet's gravity and not be flung off into space.
03:44As Rosetta approached Comet 67P, scientists spotted something unusual.
03:57The team expected to see that the central part of the comet, its nucleus,
04:02is sort of shaped like a potato, but instead, the images Rosetta sent back resembled more of a rubber duck shape.
04:10It had two lobes, almost as if the two comets had slammed into each other and bonded.
04:17It looked like nothing we had ever examined in the solar system before.
04:22This made landing Feely a bit more complicated.
04:26The complex shape of the comet made for a complex gravity and a strange rotation situation,
04:33which made flying around it very complicated.
04:37There were also craters, cliffs, sinkholes and boulders the size of houses, which had to be taken into account.
04:46Rosetta spent a few weeks analysing the comet, sending back information so the experts could determine where was best to land.
04:53Typically landing sites, for example on Mars, take years to select, so for Feely it happened exceptionally fast.
05:02No lander had attempted to make a soft landing on a comet before, so there was a lot at stake.
05:09Finally, the experts decided on the perfect landing spot for Feely, and the probe was sent down,
05:16and the world held its breath for seven hours to hear if the spacecraft landed successfully.
05:21Touchdown was confirmed at 1703 Central European Time on the 12th of November.
05:30But there was something strange about the data returned.
05:34Soon scientists, flight dynamics specialists and engineers concluded that Feely did not just touch down once on the comet, but three times.
05:45The harpoons that were meant to dig Feely into the comet's surface securely had not fired, and the lander appeared to be rotating after the first touchdown.
05:56And then the lander lifted from the surface, for one hour and fifty minutes.
06:02During that time, it travelled about one kilometre at a speed of 38 centimetres per second.
06:09It then made a smaller, second hop, travelling at about three centimetres per second, and landing in its final resting place seven minutes later.
06:20This left Feely in an awkward angle, but it was still able to conduct its onboard experiments, and send data back down to us here on Earth.
06:30However, the landing spot had limited sunlight, meaning the solar panels could not be charged, and Feely eventually lost power after 57 hours.
06:41In the end, about 80% of the planned science was completed, not bad considering the circumstances.
06:49Meanwhile, Rosetta continued to study the environment of the comet, studying the dust particles which flew off as it became more active on its approach to the Sun, and monitored the changes on the surface.
07:03After 211 days, Rosetta noticed a strange signal. Scientists analysed the data, and realised Feely had woken up, after seven months in hibernation.
07:15Engineers determined that Feely was exposed to sufficient sunlight to heat it to an acceptable operating temperature, and to generate electricity.
07:25This allowed for the experts to home in on the final resting place of Feely, and allow us to say a final goodbye.
07:32After becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, and the first to deploy a lander, Feely, in November 2014,
07:47Rosetta continued to monitor the comet's evolution surviving the harsh environment of the comet for 786 days,
07:56making a few dramatic flybys close to its surface, surviving several unexpected outbursts from the comet, and recovered from two spacecraft safe modes.
08:08After almost two years in operation around the comet, and 12 years in space, Rosetta's own mission would also come to an end on the surface of the comet, with a controlled impact.
08:19Confirmation of the end of the mission arrived at our control centre at 13.19 Central European summer time, with the loss of Rosetta's signal upon impact.
08:32The descent gave Rosetta the opportunity to study the comet right up until its last moment.
08:38The world may have said goodbye to Rosetta, but its legacy will not be forgotten.
08:44Rosetta changed our view of how the solar system formed, how the planets were made, and gave a glimpse at how life could have begun here on Earth.
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