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| Landing on a cosmic iceberg. |
| Landings on other worlds are remarkably difficult to achieve. During the last 40 years, the only objects in the Solar System on which robotic spacecraft have soft-landed have been the Moon, Venus, Mars and near-Earth asteroid Eros. A decade from now, it will be the turn of ESA's pioneering Rosetta spacecraft to land on a comet. |
| Date: 20 Aug 2002 |
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| No bugs please, this is a clean planet! |
| When packing for a trip towards another planet, there are some things, such as microorganisms, that you do not want to include in your 'luggage'. For example, what if extraterrestial life is finally detected on Mars, and scientists realise afterwards that such life is actually terrestrial? |
| Date: 30 Jul 2002 |
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| Rosetta passes compatibility test |
| Students approaching the conclusion of lengthy academic studies will have considerable sympathy with ESA's Rosetta spacecraft as the end-of-course examinations just keep on coming! |
| Date: 17 Jul 2002 |
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| Successful deployment tests for Rosetta |
| The hectic schedule of ground tests on ESA's comet chaser has continued in recent weeks as engineers at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands put the Rosetta spacecraft through its paces. |
| Date: 03 Jul 2002 |
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| Rosetta wishes CONTOUR luck chasing comets |
| Comets are suddenly in vogue in space research. ESA is getting ready to send its comet chaser Rosetta in January 2003 to rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen and study it in immense detail. Rosetta aims to physically drop a lander on a comet for the first time. Before that, however, on 1 July 2002, NASA will dispatch its CONTOUR spacecraft to fly past at least two comets, and it has two other small comet missions planned. |
| Date: 27 Jun 2002 |
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| ESA Science Media Day: Rosetta and INTEGRAL getting ready for launch |
| Two contrasting space missions are in the final stages of preparation at ESA's Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. They are the Rosetta mission to rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen and study the origins of our Solar System and the INTEGRAL spacecraft to study the most violent phenomena in the Universe. Both spacecraft are nearing their launch dates. |
| Date: 07 Jun 2002 |
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| Rosetta breaks the sound barrier |
| Europe's comet chaser has not yet left the planet, but the Rosetta spacecraft has already broken the sound barrier during preparations for its launch next
January. |
| Date: 23 May 2002 |
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| Rosetta runs hot and cold |
| Like a hardy mariner preparing for a marathon journey from the tropical shores of Brazil to the icy waters of Cape Horn, the mettle of ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has been tested to the limit in recent weeks.
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| Date: 20 Mar 2002 |
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| Top class images help ESA's Rosetta prepare to ride on a cosmic bullet |
| Chase a fast-moving comet, land on it and 'ride' it while it speeds up towards the Sun: not the script of a science-fiction movie, but the very real task of ESA's Rosetta spacecraft. New observations with the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) provide vital information about Comet Wirtanen - Rosetta's target - to help ESA reduce uncertainties in the mission, one of the most difficult ever to be performed. |
| Date: 26 Feb 2002 |
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| Critical thermal tests begin for Rosetta comet chaser |
| With less than 11 months to launch, the most advanced spacecraft ever to visit a comet is about to begin a critical series of thermal tests at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. These tests will play a vital role in ensuring the success of ESA's Rosetta mission to unravel the mysteries of Comet Wirtanen. |
| Date: 21 Feb 2002 |
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| Rosetta reunion as Lander is delivered and mated |
The Rosetta Lander, designed to be the first spacecraft in the history of space exploration to make a soft-landing on the icy nucleus of a comet, has now joined its 'mother craft' at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.
Over the coming months, the two elements of the most ambitious mission ever to explore a comet will undergo a complex test programme to prepare them for their eight-year trek to the depths of the Solar System.
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| Date: 06 Dec 2001 |
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| Rosetta orbiter rolls into the Netherlands |
| A little more than one year from now, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will be speeding through space at many thousands of kilometres per hour. In comparison, the orbiter's stately journey across Europe this week was fairly unspectacular, but the implications for the Rosetta programme are immense. |
| Date: 19 Nov 2001 |
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| Rosetta's mating ritual completed |
| A major landmark was passed this week in the race to prepare the Rosetta spacecraft for its January 2003 launch from South America. After the successful mating of the two modules that make up ESA's comet chaser, the Rosetta flight model is now ready for transportation to the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. It will then undergo an exhaustive series of tests before shipment to the launch site at the end of summer 2002. |
| Date: 09 Nov 2001 |
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| Comets at close range |
| 15 years after ESA's Giotto spacecraft achieved an historic
close range reconnaissance of Comet Halley, another probe
from Earth has successfully followed in its footsteps. |
| Date: 26 Sep 2001 |
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| ESA's new antenna is quite a dish! |
| Sending a spacecraft such as Rosetta millions of kilometres into space to explore other worlds is one of the most exciting endeavours undertaken by modern science. However, the fiery launch and prolonged trek to rendezvous with a comet is not the only part of the story. Without a means of gathering the data from deep space, analysing and storing it, the spacecraft's mission is worthless. |
| Date: 20 Sep 2001 |
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| MIRO at Comet Wirtanen: what a gas! |
| What do a comet, the Voyager mission, the Big Bang and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have in common? Answer: Dr. Samuel Gulkis from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Principal Investigator for the Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), has played a leading role in each of them. |
| Date: 10 Aug 2001 |
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| ALICE arrives in Italy |
| A miniaturised experiment that will help to unveil the mysteries of a comet is the latest of the instruments that will fly on ESA's Rosetta Orbiter to be delivered to Italy. The ALICE ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer, which arrived at the Turin plant of Alenia Spazio earlier this week, has already been tested and integrated on the Rosetta spacecraft. |
| Date: 20 Jul 2001 |
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| Rosetta's CONSERT heads for a real cool venue |
| What is a comet really like? What is its interior like? Could it be a fluffy agglomeration of snow and dirt? Or perhaps it is solid all the way through like an iceberg encrusted with black organic material? Some have even likened it to a chocolate cake with a dark surface overlying a mixture of porous and solid material! |
| Date: 05 Jul 2001 |
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| Lift off for Rosetta at Le Bourget |
| The January 2003 launch of ESA's Rosetta comet chaser by an Ariane 5 rocket was confirmed on Tuesday, 19 June, at the Paris Air Show.
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| Date: 21 Jun 2001 |
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| First European Workshop on Exo/Astrobiology |
| From 21 to 23 May, the first European Workshop on Exo/Astrobiology will be taking place at ESA/ESRIN, the European Space Agency establishment in Italy (Frascati, near Rome).
The workshop is being organised jointly by the European Exobiology Network and the European Space Agency.
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| Date: 16 May 2001 |
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