ESA wants you to name its comet landing site

ESA wants you to name its comet landing site

The Rosetta mothership arrived at the comet earlier this year and on August 6 it became the first-ever spacecraft to enter into orbit around a comet.

The European Space Agency is preparing for one of its spacecrafts to make a historic landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the name of the current landing site – “Site J” – just won’t do.

To fix their problem, the ESA holding a contest and asking the public to give the landing site for its Rosetta mission an appropriate name. The person who submits the chosen name will have a chance to watch the landing, as it happens, from the ESA control center in Darmstadt, Germany.

“The rules are simple: you can propose any name you like, but it must not be the name of a person. You must also provide a short (up to 200 words) description as to why you have selected this name. You may enter in any European language,” a statement on the official ESA site said.

The Rosetta mothership arrived at the comet earlier this year and on August 6, after a ten-year journey, it became the first-ever spacecraft to enter into orbit around a comet. On November 12, the mothership will release its Philae lander, which will descend to the comet’s surface over the course of a few hours.

While on the surface, Philae will capture images of the comet’s surface across the visible and infrared spectrum of light. It will also gather samples from the surface Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and perform an on-board analysis. Finally, the probe will conduct an analysis of the surface just below its body using its Alpha X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) just before its battery life runs out.

Meanwhile, the Rosetta mothership will remain in orbit around the comet – staying there as the comet approaches the Sun. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is expect to pass the Sun around August 2015 and continue on its 6.5-year orbit. The Rosetta mission is expect to collect information on the comet through December 2015.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *